


Ancient Words Unspoken

by Tillyalf427



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Dark Guilds, Eventual Romance, F/M, Okay I have no idea how to tag this, Reader-Insert, Romance, Rune Magic, Runes, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 03:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 55,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18130169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tillyalf427/pseuds/Tillyalf427
Summary: Y/n L/n has been running away for most of her life. Away from her parents, away from dark guilds and even away from guild members asked to track her down. That is until the Thunder Legion show up needing her help...





	1. 1 ▫ First Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know what to say about this...it was originally a Freed X OC fic on wattpad that I never finished but I decided to rewrite it and uh yeah....here it is.....enjoy

  


Running. She was always running. Away from police, guild members who were asked to hunt her down and mostly, her parents. She tucked her H/c hair behind her ear as she curled up in the hole she had found under a large old oak tree to hide from the new guild members who were trying to catch her. After originally attempting to fight the team she had to give up and flee. They were too strong. And there were too many of them. Not to mention she had yet to master her magic, having only ever learnt the basics, leaving her with nothing but two daggers and her fists for self-defence. She wished they understood, whenever guild members came to hunt her down, it just brought back horrible, unpleasant memories about her family. When these big strong mages came to try and find her she was always convinced she would die, she was always convinced that they would find her and lock her up and most of all, she was always convinced that her parents had sent them.

"Hey! I think I can smell her!" She heard a gruff male voice shout, presumably to his team members.

 _Crap_ , Y/n thought, panting to catch her breath and peeking her head out of her hiding place to see four people standing a bit away. There was a big man with spikey blond hair, a man with weird totem poles flying around him, a woman with brownish hair and lastly, a man with long green hair.

_I've never seen this lot before.....What new guild are they from..?_

Unfortunately, it appeared the one of the group was a dragon slayer and he easily detected where she was hiding, the group surrounding the opening underneath the tree. She tried to keep her breathing quiet and pressed herself as close to the wall of mud as she could, trying to stay out of sight.

"Hello?" A male voice called out, confusion lacing their voice. Y/n stayed as quiet as possible, dread growing in her stomach as she heard another, deeper voice say

"I know you're in there, I can smell you and hear you breathing,"

The H/c haired girl's breathing hitched and she tried to steady her voice as she asked

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"We're from the guild Fairy Tail. Our master would like to speak with you so we have been sent to get you," Another male voice spoke

"I'm not going with you, leave me alone," Y/n denied, suspecting the entire thing to be a trap.

"Please, we're not sure what he wants to talk to you about but it's urgent," This time it was a female voice and Y/n shook her head, even though she knew that they couldn't see her, her H/c moving to cover her face partly.

"How would I know to trust you. For all I know you could be from a dark guild," Y/n voiced her suspicions

"You have no reason to trust us, but we'd appreciate it if we could at least talk," The third male voice spoke again and after briefly considering it, Y/n began crawling out of the cavern against her better judgement

"Talk then. But don't even think about coming any closer," the H/c girl warned with a glare, her hands resting on the handles of the two daggers strapped to her thighs.

"We've not been told everything but we can explain what we do know," The green haired male was the first to speak and Y/n simply nodded, waiting for him to continue "You use black magic right?"The man continued and Y/n nodded unsurely

"How do you know that?" The H/c girl asked, somewhat aggressively

"This is just what we've been told, you'd have to ask master Makarov how he knows," Laxus interrupted and Y/n glanced at him warily.

"But you also partially know how to use another form of magic, right?" the green haired male asked again, being interrupted by Y/n.

"Who even are you?" She asked warily, her hands tightening their grip on her two daggers.

"We're from the guild Fairy Tail, I'm Freed Justine, these are my teammates, Evergreen, Bixslow," He pointed to the only woman and the male with his tongue stuck out before turning to his other side and adding "And this is Laxus," 

"What does my magic have to do with anything though? What do you want from me?" Y/n glared slightly

"A dark guild has taken over a nearby town and they have trapped everyone there using an ancient form of letter magic, the same type of magic that you partially know how to use. Both I and another person from Fairy Tail who uses letter magic have already tried to get in but it seems like a different type of magic completely, that's why we need your help. We want you to come to Fairy Tail with us and learn to master your second magic so that we can free the town," Freed explained, hoping that the H/c haired girl would begin to trust them.

Y/n stood for a moment, observing the body language of the group, trying to de-code whether they had bad intentions. She decided to believe them for now and gave the faintest smile to the group.

"I'll go with you," She stated emotionlessly "But if anything seems suspicious, I won't hesitate to attack you,"

The group seemed relieved and they began walking through the forest, Freed walking beside the H/c girl to ensure she didn't run away.

Freed would sometimes try to start a conversation however, Y/n didn't seem all that interested in talking. He did notice the many wounds covering the shorter girls arms and legs, even her face wasn't free from cuts and he noticed how a few looked like they may be infected, wincing and making a mental note to try and clean them when they got back to the guild.

At one point, Y/n did turn to him and ask quietly

"If no one from your guild could get into this town, how am I going to learn how to use this magic?" 

Freed had also asked the same question when master Makarov had given them the mission, receiving a knowing smile in response.

"It's instinctive. She needs to learn how to use runes first and then she should know herself,"

The rune mage explained this to the H/c girl who seems unconvinced but nodded anyway.

They soon emerged from the forest, Laxus, Evergreen and Bixslow leading the way and leaving Freed and Y/n to talk to one another.

"If you don't mind me asking, why have you never joined a guild?" Freed's curiosity got the better of him and Y/n stopped walking for a moment, her fists clenching at her sides.

"They can't be trusted. Joining a guild makes you easier to track down," Y/n briefly explained "Me going with you is a big risk but if I don't go with you, no doubt some other guild will try and get me to help,"

Freed wanted to ask why it was a risk however, Y/n tried to change the conversation as quickly as possible.

"So Fairy Tail? They're the ones who destroy a lot of things right?"

Freed mentally sighed and nodded.

"Not all of us do, it's just the ones who do, they do it often enough for the whole guild to be known for it," He explained and Y/n nodded, the two returning to silence.

They reached the train station soon enough and got on the next train to Magnolia, an awkward silence filling the carriage. Y/n sat staring out the window with Freed to her left and Evergreen to Freed's left. Bixslow and Laxus sat opposite them and Y/n avoided eye contact with the other males.

"So Y/n, you do solo missions right?" Evergreen tried to break the awkward silence however, the H/c girl simply nodded in response.

"If you're this quiet around everyone, you're going to hate the guild," Laxus commented. Freed gave him a look that told him to be quiet and Y/n sighed quietly with a forced smile.

"No-one said I had to enjoy it did they? Or is that part of your 'mission' as well?" Y/n asked snarkily, effectively shutting everyone up again

Laxus grumbled something about her being rude and then the silence returned.

The tension was thick enough to be cut with a knife by the time they got off the train in Magnolia, the group exiting the train carriage and heading towards Fairy Tail.

As they approached the guild, Y/n felt the anxiety begin bubbling in her chest, threatening to spill over and she tried to push it down angrily.

_Stop being so weak Y/n, there's nothing for you to even be anxious about_

Despite telling herself this, Y/n still felt her heart racing uncomfortably in her chest and her palms sweating slightly as the Fairy Tail building came into view.

Freed seemed to sense her unease and gently reassured

"It's okay, I swear no one's going to hurt you," 

Y/n simply nodded, brushing off the comment and taking a deep breath before following the others inside the doors of the guild

The silence that enveloped the building as she entered seemed almost deafening as she followed Laxus, Evergreen and Bixslow further in, Freed walking behind her.

"Ah, you're back," A small man who sat on the bar in front of them spoke "And I presume this is Y/n L/n," He asked, jumping off the bar and walking towards the H/c girl. He glanced behind her at the rune mage and spoke again, his voice lower than before "Freed," 

Y/n glanced in confusion behind her at the green haired male who was quickly writing something in the air with his sword. It took the H/c girl a moment to realise what was happening but as she saw a wall of purple text appear around the guild, her eyes widened, her pulse racing in fear as she spun around, seeing that she was surrounded completely. She turned to look at Freed once more and mumbled out a quiet

"Why...?"  
  



	2. 2 ▫ Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: 2nd chapter whooo. I'm really glad that I've pre- written a few chapters because I'm starting to learn to drive so I'm going to have less time to write but anyway, I'll still update weekly and uh ye.
> 
> Also Fairy Tail has given me extremely unrealistic expectations for friendships :((((
> 
> But anyway, enjoy the chapter :)))))

"Why...?" Y/n asked, the anxiety bubbling under her skin turning into anger as she ran towards the wall of purple glowing text, hitting her fists against it, her eyes wide with fear.

"Y/n calm dow..." Freed tried but was cut off as the H/c girl spun around to face him again, anger filling her eyes.

"Shut up!" She yelled "You promised that no one would hurt me! I swear Freed if you don't get rid of these runes..."

The green haired male tried to approach the frantic looking girl however, he was stopped upon seeing the H/c girl surrounded by a black mist, her hand pulled back with one of her daggers clenched tightly in her fist, ready to attack him.

"Y/n! No-one's going to hurt you, please calm down," Freed tried to reason, however, the H/c girl didn't seem to hear him and when he tried to step closer to her again, she charged at him, her free hand grasping the other dagger, barely giving Freed time to react and pull out his own sword.

The H/c girls attack was blocked by the blade of Freed's sword and he stepped back, trying to think of the best way to go about this.

The rest of the guild watched with bated breath and Laxus went to move forward and help Freed however, Makarov stopped him.

"Leave this to Freed. We don't want anyone getting hurt, we just need her to calm down," the short man said to his grandson

Another few attacks were sent in Freed's direction and he managed to block most of them, only receiving a couple of cuts from Y/n's daggers. Luckily, the H/c girl hadn't tried to use any magic and Freed managed to catch her off guard as she stumbled back after her attack was again blocked by his sword.

He managed to grasp one of her wrists in his hand and twist it behind her back, making the H/c girl drop one of the daggers. His sword came up to rest against her throat and she froze in fear, her other hand releasing the second dagger. The blade felt like it was burning against her throat and she squirmed slightly to try and move away from it however, with Freed's body behind her, she couldn't move very far.

"The runes are just as a precautionary," Freed spoke, his breath fanning over Y/n's neck as he spoke "To make sure you don't run away before anyone can even explain," Y/n tried to nod in understanding, fear rushing through her as the blade touched her skin from the small movement "If you still want to leave after everything has been explained then you are free to do so,"

The rune mage removed the blade from Y/n's throat and dropped her hands, moving back a few steps in case she attacked again. When it looked like she wasn't going to, he replaced his sword in its sheath and went to pick up the daggers she had dropped, handing them to the H/c girl who took them quietly and put them away again. She looked slightly paler than before but Freed figured that it was normal considering she'd just had a blade held to her neck, making another mental note to apologise after she had talked to Makarov.

Makarov approached the H/c girl now, gesturing for her to follow him and she obeyed, briefly making eye contact with the rest of the thunder legion before looking down again and following Makarov wordlessly.

She was led into a small office like room and was told to sit down as Makarov sat down as well on the other side of a small desk in the room.

"So I'm going to hope that they briefly explained the situation to you," The small man asked, to which Y/n nodded and he continued "I'm sure you have a few questions about it so feel free to ask,"

Y/n thought for a moment before quietly asking

"How did you find me?"

Makarov gave her a wide smile and explained

"It certainly wasn't easy I'll say that. It's taken a few months and it's all been based off sightings off you from locals in the towns you've visited. Once we had a couple of recent sightings, I sent the thunder legion with Laxus to find you based on scent,"

The H/c girl almost didn't even want to ask her next question but she knew she had to

"H..How did you know about my magic....?" Her voice was quiet as she spoke and she sounded scared which Makarov picked up on.

"Honestly, it was just a rumour...One of the people who informed us of this town taken over by the dark guild told us and it was worth a try. Both Freed and Levy couldn't get through so we were getting pretty desperate," 

The H/c girl nodded and asked seriously

"No-one knows I'm here right?" 

Makarov shook his head and gave her a small smile

"Freed and Levy will be able to help you to learn your magic but I think for now you should rest. It's a lot for you to take in," 

the short man stood up and led her out of the room back to the guild hall, heading towards the bar where a woman with long white hair stood behind the bar.

Freed approached them upon seeing them return and heard Mira ask the H/c girl where she would like her guild mark.

Y/n's face turned blank as she stared in disbelief at Mira.

"I'm not joining a guild," Y/n stated, her voice containing no emotion.

Mira looked taken aback and glanced towards Freed who was now stood by the bar as well, silently asking him for help.

"No one told me I would have to join Fairy Tail," Y/n added, directing a glare at Freed who simply stated

"I knew you wouldn't come with us if I told you that,"

Y/n growled slightly with a glare directed at the rune mage and Mira simply observed the interaction with a slight grin on her face.

"So where would you like your guild mark?" She asked again and Y/n grumbled slightly before pointing at her upper arm

"What colour would you like it?" Mira asked and Y/n replied with F/c, watching as Mira stamped her upper arm. She ran her finger over it after Mira moved away and glanced at Freed in distaste.

"This is your fault, and I'm not impressed," Y/n said to the rune mage who gave a small smile.

"You'll learn to love it, I guarantee it," Freed commented before adding "I'm sorry about before, I couldn't think of another way to stop you from attacking,"

"I...it's okay, I...shouldn't have freaked out like that..." Y/n replied with a small smile.

"You were scared, it's understandable. I should have explained beforehand. Which reminds me, you're covered in cuts and bruises, would you let me clean them for you?" Freed asked, glancing over Y/n once more to see the number of injuries littering her arms and legs.

"No...uh....it's okay, I'm fine," Y/n said unsurely, avoiding eye contact with the green haired male.

"Please, let me make up for earlier, you seemed terrified," Freed clearly wasn't going to let it go and so Y/n reluctantly agreed.

Freed gestured for Y/n to follow him and led the way to the infirmary, telling her to sit down on the bed as he began rummaging through the cupboard looking for some antiseptic wipes.

Once he found what he was looking for, he moved to stand in front of Y/n, placing the supplies down and gently taking Y/n's arm. There was a large bite mark on her upper arm which he focussed on first, taking an antiseptic wipe and warning Y/n before continuing.

"This will sting a bit," 

The H/c girl nodded and Freed began gently cleaning the wound, a hiss escaping Y/n's mouth at the stinging pain as she clenched her teeth,

"Sorry," Freed mumbled as he continued working, trying to get the dirt out of the wound. He soon moved onto the next few cuts, these ones smaller and littering her arms. 

Y/n flinched when Freed turned his attention to a large gash across one of her cheeks, jerking away when she felt Freed's hand on her face.

"Sorry," The H/c girl mirrored Freed's previous words as she tried to stay still and allow Freed to clean the wound. Freed concentrated on what he was doing, his other hand resting on Y/n's chin to keep her head in place as he kept mumbling apologies to the H/c girl.

He finished up cleaning the dirt out of the wounds and grabbed some bandages, covering up the worst of the wounds.

"All done. We can start working on your magic whenever you're ready. Spend a few days getting used to the guild and try making some friends, okay?" Freed spoke again and Y/n nodded, knowing that she probably wouldn't take the advice to make new friends.

"I'll probably just stick with you and your team, I don't need to make friends," Y/n commented and followed Freed out of the room.

"You're impossible," Freed sighed, locating the rest of his team and heading over to them with Y/n walking behind him.

"Oh cool, Freed you brought Y/n as well," Bixslow commented and the H/c girl looked at him, her face emotionless as she mumbled

"I mean it's not like I have anywhere else to go for as long as this mission takes...."

Bixslow grinned wickedly, making dread bubble in Y/n's chest

"You could stay with Freed!" He laughed and the rune mage looked at him unimpressed, as did Y/n.

"Thanks but no thanks, I'll find somewhere to stay later," Y/n wasn't too sure how happy Freed would be about that, and she wasn't too sure how well that would go or her either.

"I mean we did bring you here, the least we could do is give you somewhere to stay," Evergreen commented and Y/n shook her head frantically

"I swear I'm fine on my own thanks. I don't need you guys looking after me all the time," She glanced at the bandages wrapped around her arm and then up at Freed when she said this, the rune mage seeming to catch the glance. Surely she imagined the slight look of hurt flash across his face. Of course. It was just a figment of her imagination  
"Honestly I'll be fine on my own," Y/n still tried to protest however, Evergreen wasn't having any of it.  
"You're staying with one of us and that's final," Evergreen stated, leaving no room for the H/c girl to argue  
"But..I..." Y/n started before Bixslow interrupted  
"I wouldn't argue with her if I was you, you're either staying with Ever or Freed, you're not going to get out of it,"  
The H/c girl sighed and leaned back in her seat.  
"It would make it easier to help teach you your magic I guess," Freed thought out loud and Evergreen clapped  her hands together saying  
"You're staying with Freed then, it's settled,"

Y/n opened her mouth to argue however she shut it again upon seeing the glare Evergreen was sending her way.  
And with that, the H/c girl accepted her fate.


	3. 3 ▫️A Temporary Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy this small bit of fluff before I make everyone suffer whooo

The group spent another few hours at the guild before the sky began turning gradually darker, leading to Freed suggesting to Y/n that they left soon. The rest of the Thunder legion waved them goodbye and Y/n followed after Freed somewhat awkwardly.

the H/c mage wracked her brain for something to say, coming back blank and holding back a sigh of frustration as the awkward silence continued.

"What's wrong?" Freed asked as if sensing her frustration. Y/n huffed slightly and turned away from the rune mage with a small pout

"Nothing. This is just awkward, I should've just found somewhere myself," The H/c girl mumbled and Freed shook his head with a roll of his eyes.

"It's fine, and besides, this way I'll be able to help with your magic even when you're not at the guild,"

Y/n looked unconvinced but remained silent as they walked the rest of the way to Freed's house.

Upon reaching the building, Freed unlocked the door and invited the H/c girl inside and removed his sword and coat, hanging them up on two of the hooks behind the door.

Y/n stood awkwardly next to him, unsure of what to do before Freed spoke again.

"Take your shoes off and I'll show you where the shower is,"

Y/n complied, removing her boots as Freed did the same before leading the way through the house to what Y/n presumed was the bathroom. Freed went to leave the room, speaking over his shoulder saying a quick

"I'll go and get you a towel and something to change into, I can put your clothes in the wash after, they're covered in mud,"

With that he was gone and Y/n stood staring in awe at the room she stood in. It had been a very long time since she had been in an actual house. Almost 7 years now, her mind helpfully supplied and she smiled longingly. If only things had been different. None of this would have happened, she wouldn't have learnt to survive on her own, she wouldn't have lived sleeping in the woods for years, she wouldn't have had to learn magic to defend herself. She let out a bitter chuckle at the thought, Oh how different things would be.

Freed chose that moment to reappear, noticing the glassy look in the H/c girls eyes and asking quietly

"Is everything alright?"

He noticed her fists clenched at her sides which released in surprise upon hearing his voice, her whole body startling as her head snapped up, her gaze meeting his concerned one.

"Y...yeah I'm, fine..." She gave a forced smile in an attempt to get Freed to drop the subject which seemed to work as the rune mage handed her a neatly folded towel with some folded clothes on top.  
"I'm hoping that they'll fit you, I'm not too sure though," Freed spoke and briefly explained how to turn the shower on and off and how to change the temperature before leaving the room, the door clicking closed behind him.  
Y/n felt out of place as she began undressing, placing her daggers next to the sink and putting her clothes in a pile.  
She placed the towel over the rail next to the shower and stepped in, turning the dials like Freed had shown her until it was an okay temperature.  
The water ran down the drain a slightly brown colour as the mud and grime washed off her skin down the drain. She began washing herself, leaving her hair until last as she dreaded fighting through the knotted strands.  
When she got round to washing her hair, she fought with the H/c strands, trying to separate them and failing terribly. Her fingers caught on a rather large knot and her eyes watered, trying her best to detangle the hair before admitting defeat.  
She turned the water off and stepped out of the shower onto the fluffy bath mat before grabbing the soft towel and wrapping it around herself.  
H/c hair dripped water down her spine, making her shiver as she dried herself off, pulling on the clothes which Freed had left.  
As it turned out, the clothes were quite a bit bigger than the H/c girl and she found herself having to roll up the legs of the pants and tighten the drawstring almost as much as it would go.  
She briefly dried her hair with the towel before grabbing her clothes and leaving the bathroom.  
She wasn't sure where Freed would be and so she walked aimlessly around the house until she spotted the green haired rune mage.  
She approached him quietly and he seemed oblivious to her presence until she coughed quietly, catching his attention.  
"Ah, you're done," He turned to face her and took the clothes and towel off her "I'll wash them in a second,"  
He glanced briefly over Y/n, noticing the mess of knotted H/c hair on her head.  
"Did you not try and brush it?" He asked, gesturing towards the H/c girls hair.  
"I tried to get some of the knots out in the shower but it didn't work..." She spoke quietly and Freed shook his head with a sigh.  
"You can't leave it like that, it will only get worse. I'll help you to sort it out after we eat,"

It was then that Y/n realised the smell of food floating around in the room, filling her senses. The H/c girl nodded and followed Freed towards the table where he placed down two bowls of food, steam rising up from them.  
They ate in relative silence, the awkwardness from earlier returning somewhat.  
Y/n avoided eye contact with the rune mage, feeling extremely out of place.  
It was uncomfortable being in someone else's house, nevermind being in the house of someone who you barely know and Y/n could feel her chest tightening slightly the more she thought about it.  
How did she know Freed could be trusted? There was no way to know, she just had to trust his word...which was something she never do in a normal situation.  
Only this wasn't a normal situation. And part of her had known that as soon as she saw the new group who arrived that morning. It was a strange feeling of dread swirling with anxiousness that filled her entire body, keeping her on edge even with only Freed around her.  
"...Y/n..?" Freed's concerned voice filtered through her thoughts and her head snapped up to meet his gaze, seeing him stood in front of her stacking the dishes to take them over to the sink.  
"Hm? Sorry I was just thinking..." The H/c girl explained which Freed accepted, not pushing it any further in fear that Y/n would leave.  
They needed her to help them but he was starting to think that maybe she needed their help as well. She didn't trust people, that much was clear but hopefully they could change that, hopefully they could show her that there is nothing wrong with having friends beside you. Or at least he hoped they could.

After quickly cleaning up the dishes they had used with Y/n's help after she stubbornly insisted that she help him, he led Y/n to the living room, telling her to sit down whilst he went to retrieve a hairbrush to try and tackle the mess that was Y/n's hair.

When he returned, Y/n was still sat uncomfortably, perched on the edge of the sofa. He rolled his eyes and approached the H/c girl and standing in front of her.  
"This would probably be easier if you sit in front of me," He suggested and the H/c girl nodded in agreement. Freed sat down and Y/n moved to sit on the floor in front of him however, she was stopped by Freed's hand on her wrist.  
"What are you..?" Y/n began asking before she was pulled to sit in front of Freed on the sofa, sat in between his legs, making her face burn slightly in embarrassment.  
Freed got to work immediately, starting by trying to brush out the very ends of the H/c hair, apologising whenever the brush hit a knot and pulled Y/n's hair.  
Y/n brushed it off every time however it didn't stop him from mumbling a quiet 'sorry' anytime he thought he had hurt her.  
When he reached one of the larger knots, he used his fingers to start with, trying to separate the damp strands as much as possible before even attempting to brush it.  
It was a long and fairly frustrating process and Freed felt like he wasn’t really getting anywhere to start with however after almost half an hour, he began making progress.  
Y/n was still sat stiffly in front of Freed, unable to relax as he brushed the knots out of her hair. Her face had been flushed red throughout the entire experience and it didn't seem to want to go away any time soon.  
"I'm almost done now," Freed spoke, brushing out the last of the larger knots, quickly running the brush through Y/n's hair once more before he was satisfied.  
He placed the brush down next to them and his hand absentmindedly ran through Y/n's hair  
"Freed?" The H/c girl asked in confusion upon feeling the long slim fingers running through her hair.  
"Sorry," The rune mage mumbled and leaned away "Come on, it's getting late, we should go to bed,"

Y/n nodded and moved to stand up, feeling strangely cold when Freed's warmth disappeared from her back.  
Her hand reached up to feel her hair, her fingers slipping through the strands, surprising her as she felt no knots.  
Freed stood up as well and removed the cushions from the sofa, placing them to the side and moving the coffee table out of the way. The sofa folded out into a bed and Freed spoke again  
"You can stay in my bed,"  
Y/n's eyes widened as Freed said this and she immediately protested.  
"No this is your house, you're just stuck with me because of some dark guild,"  
There was a pout on Y/n's face but Freed didn't notice, too busy setting up the fold out bed.  
"Y/n, it's fine," Freed sighed and Y/n's pout only grew wider. She sat down on the floor with her arms crossed, a small glare settled on her face directed at Freed.  
"I'm not moving," The H/c girl spoke stubbornly and Freed finally glanced in her direction.  
"I'm not arguing with you about this," Freed spoke and Y/n huffed and retorted coldly  
"Don't argue with me then and sleep in your own bed,"

Freed sighed once more, directing a small glare over his shoulder at Y/n.  
"You're impossible," the rune mage huffed and Y/n gave a small smirk as he added "Okay, sure. I'm not going to argue with you about this,"

Y/n grinned triumphantly and Freed left the room to grab some spare bedding.  
He returned and finished setting up the bed before turning to Y/n again and saying  
"If you need anything, come and wake me up okay?"  
Y/n nodded non-committedly with a small hum and Freed sighed once more, walking around the room to draw the curtains closed. A quick glance outside told him that there would be a storm later tonight which he voiced to the H/c girl who hummed again. With that, Freed left the room, saying a quiet  
"Goodnight Y/n," as he left.  
When he was out of earshot, she whispered a quiet  
"Goodnight Freed..."

The H/c girl curled up in bed, her thinking about all that had happened that day as she heard thunder starting to rumble in the distance. Just as Freed said...  
She felt herself slip into sleep quickly, exhausted beyond belief from the day she'd had.

  
_Thunder boomed throughout the town and lightning crackled in the sky, lighting up the otherwise dark village. A lone man stood on the outskirts of the town, a large cape covering his face as his hand pressed up against the wall created by glowing purple text. Somewhere in the distance a loud pained cry was heard. A smirk grew on his face as the lightning overhead flashed. He had faith. This time they said that she would come and save them, they promised and he believed she would, always so weak wanting to care for others. They would be reunited though, soon....oh how he couldn't wait..._

A loud clap of thunder awoke Y/n from her sleep as she stared at the closed curtains which had been lit up by a bolt of lightning. Something wasn't right, she could feel it as she stood up and headed over to the window, moving the curtains aside ever so slightly. She immediately stumbled backwards upon looking out the window, a sudden wave of dizziness hitting her. She fell back in surprise, hoping that she wouldn't make too much noise and wake up Freed.  
She held her breath for a moment and listened for movement from the rest of the house and upon hearing silence, she crept back up to the window, peering outside and noticing nothing suspicious. However, as she looked closer, she spotted a man stood across the street, his face obscured by a large cloak that moved wildly in the wind. As if sensing her gaze, he lifted his head up, two red eyes staring right back at her before he smirked and walked away. She fell away from the window again, the dizziness returning as she sat on the floor catching her breath.  
What was that?

Unfortunately, she wasn't sure herself what the answer to that was and the longer she sat there, the longer it bugged her, and so, she steeled herself and glanced out the window again, her breath catching in her throat and her eyes widening in surprise at what she saw...

 


	4. 4 ▫ What Was That?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert me struggling to put a photo into this chapter*  
> Seriously how? I have no idea if this is going to work properly but I hope it does.  
> If it does, enjoy my shitty pen drawing in this chapter.

She felt a spike of fear course through her body as she saw two bloodshot eyes staring straight at her, face pressed up against the glass. Its skin was deathly pale and a wicked grin stretched across its face as the head tilted, it's red eyes focussed on her and only her.

 

 

 

 

The H/c girl was frozen with fear, helpless as she saw the creature lift up a bony hand, a long thin finger pointing at her as it stared unblinkingly. She snapped out of it and scrambled towards the coffee table where she had put her dagger, grabbing the two silver handles, her eyes still locked on the creature outside. Mist surrounded the creature as it's finger moved closer to the window, a long, claw-like nail moving to scratch down the glass, a shrill noise cutting through the air before a gut-wrenching screech was heard. the H/c girl squeezed her eyes closed tightly, hiding behind her hands as she let out a whimper of her own.

It was silent for a moment but Y/n refused to open her eyes, unprepared to see the creature sitting in front of her.

Just as she plucked up the courage to open her eyes, she felt long slender fingers gently touching her face, pure terror coursing through her veins as she lifted an arm to slice the hand with her dagger, a loud shout escaping her lungs as she did so.

"Get away from me!"

She tried to crawl away from the creature but felt a hand grip the arm that had tried to attack.

"Y/n! Calm down it's just me!" 

She could've sworn she heard Freed's voice but that couldn't be true. Whatever had been outside must be trying to trick her by sounding like the rune mage. Ans she wasn't going to fall for it.

She swung her other arm which was also caught and pinned down next to her.

"Y/n!" Freed's voice called again.

No, she wouldn't fall for it...

She squeezed her eyes closed tighter and turned her head away from the creature which now had both her hands pinned down next to her, it's body close enough to her for her to feel the heat coming from it.

Her breath came out shakily and she prepared to face a horrible death when she felt hair fall onto her face, tickling her skin.

_Did the creature have hair? I think it did but it must be really close for it to touch my face...It doesn't feel that close....._

Against her better judgement, she opened her eyes a tiny bit, being met with green strands of hair falling across her cheek.

_Freed....it really was him..._

"Freed...." Y/n mumbled, squirming around to try and escape his grasp. Freed's grip remained tight however and the H/c girl began getting frustrated "Freed let go of me!"

"Y/n what the hell just happened?" Freed sounded angry, his voice raised and Y/n shrunk back slightly in fear.

"Freed please!" Y/n was getting desperate. Freed had his back to the window and Y/n couldn't see past him. What if it was still there, waiting to attack? She let go of the daggers and struggled more, the fear from earlier making her heart race wildly.

After some more struggling, she somehow managed to catch Freed off guard, slipping her wrist out of his grasp and flipping him over, using his momentary shock at the turn of events to rush to her feet and move straight to the window. Staring out the window, she felt dread settle in her stomach.

It wasn't there...There was nothing outside other than puddles covering the ground with raindrops creating ripples in the surface.

She rushed over to the other window in the room and looked out of that on, again seeing nothing. Freed watched her as she moved back to the first window, her breath catching in her throat as she spotted something.

Just as she had begun thinking it was her imagination, she noticed the slight scratch on the outside of the window where the creature's nails had scraped. It had actually happened. So where had it gone?

"Y/n, please just calm down and tell me what happened," Freed tried and Y/n suddenly grasped her head tightly, a sharp ache forming seemingly from nowhere.

"Right...yeah..." Y/n mumbled and moved to sit down as Freed moved to sit next to her. "I woke up earlier and looked out of the window...I felt dizzy as soon as I looked outside...There was a man with a cape and when I saw him he looked straight at me as if he knew I was there....I...when I looked again..." she shivered at the memory "There was some creature....it had really big eyes....and was grinning....it was hideous...i...it pointed at me so I grabbed my daggers thinking it would get in...and it started scratching the window before something screamed...then you were here and I thought it had gotten in....now it's gone...." 

Her fists clenched as she explained and shivers ran down her spine at the memories. Freed nodded with a confused look on his face.

"Hm...I've never seen anything like that happen before..." the rune mage spoke quietly and Y/n immediately turned to him, anger written on her face

"I'm not making this up! There are even scratch marks on the glass!" She defended, angry that the rune mage would even doubt this when she had been so scared.

"No, no that's not what I meant," Freed replied, seemingly thinking of something 

"Well, it sure as hell sounded like it," Y/n replied coldly, Freed deciding to ignore it as he stood up and left the room for a moment. "Freed?" Y/n called out in fear watching the green-haired male disappear.

To her relief, he returned a moment later with his sword in hand, confusing the H/c girl.

"Freed...?" She asked unsurely, almost scared of what he was going to do. 

"Relax, I'm just checking the runes around the house," Freed replied and realisation dawned upon her.

"That scream...it was the creature thing being stopped by the runes, right?" She asked as the rune mage began writing in the air with his sword.

"Yes, it will be. I'm going to add more just for security though, especially as we don't know what it was,"

Y/n nodded in understanding, glancing at the clock hung on the wall and seeing that it was almost six in the morning. It had seemed way too dark earlier for it to be any later than two o clock, however, Y/n supposed that it could have just been due to the thunderstorm which seemed to have almost fully passed.

"I'm going to guess you won't be able to go back to sleep after this?" Freed asked and Y/n nodded, avoiding the eyes of the rune mage. "We'll head to the guild early then. We could start working on your magic if you feel up for it," 

Y/n looked away again and replied with a quiet

"I'm sorry for almost stabbing you...again...." Freed opened his mouth to reassure her that it was okay however she continued "And I'm sorry I woke you up so early, we don't have to go right now, you can go back to bed if you want,"

Freed shook his head with a small smile as he replied

"It's fine, honestly. I should've just tried speaking to you instead of grabbing you before. And it's okay, I'm usually awake early anyway," 

Y/n didn't look convinced however, she agreed reluctantly.

Freed began walking to the kitchen to make something to eat, scraping his hair up into a high ponytail as he walked and called over his shoulder to Y/n

"Go and get dressed, I'll make us something to eat,"

The H/c girl complied and picked up the discarded daggers on the floor before collecting the folded clothes that Freed had washed the previous day, heading to the bathroom to get changed.

As she got changed, Y/n caught a glance at her face in the mirror, her attention immediately turning to the deep looking cut down her cheek. She gently poked at it and found that it was a fairly new cut, confusing her greatly.

"How have I cut my face...?" she mumbled to herself before the memory rushed back to her.

The nails scratching the window....maybe somehow the creature had done it?

_Surely that was impossible? Right?_

She shook her head, removing the thoughts from her head as she finished getting dressed and left the bathroom, heading towards the kitchen again.  
  


The H/c girl decided against bringing up her suspicions about the creature, ignoring the slight sting in her cheek as they ate and finished getting ready.

Soon enough, they left Freed's house, heading to the guild. Luckily the streets were quiet this early in the morning however, Y/n couldn't seem to shake the feeling that someone was watching her.

She kept on glancing around her, trying to spot anyone who it could possibly be, however, she didn't see anyone and Freed seemed to notice her restlessness, urging her to walk faster towards the guild.

"What's wrong?" He asked quietly and Y/n glanced around once more, checking if anyone was listening before replying

"It feels like someone's watching us...It's probably nothi..." Y/n was cut off by Freed pulling her inside the guild doors, startling her slightly.

"Come on, we'll go to the library. I'm sure there are some books on basic rune magic there," He spoke, changing the subject completely.

Freed led the way towards the library and opened the door, revealing a large room with shelves of books all the way from the floor to the ceiling. The H/c girls eyes widened at the sight and Freed smirked at the reaction.

He gestured for her to follow him as he began searching through one of the shelves, quickly finding one which was relevant and gesturing for Y/n to sit down as he began explaining the basics of rune magic.


	5. 5 ▫️New Languages

The book that Freed had pulled out was full of strange letter which Y/n didn't understand. The black printed symbols made her head ache, even as Freed began explaining them. He had started out by finding a book on the symbols which were used, deciding that it was a good place to start however, as he began explaining, it turned out to be more difficult than he had originally thought.

The H/c girl stared at the page in front of her with her forehead furrowed in concentration, trying to follow along with what Freed had said.

"Is there no way to learn this magic by doing it? It's hard to remember things from a book..." Y/n whined, flopping her head down onto the table in front of her

"Y/n, giving up isn't going to help at all, it won't get any easier by lying on the book," Freed raised an eyebrow at her and she pouted, sitting back up to face him.

"I thought you said this would be easy and that I'd 'instinctively know what to do'," The H/c girl pointed out, a finger directed at the rune mage who held his hands up in surrender.

"Master said that. I think he meant that once you've learnt the basics, all the more complex things will come easily. Or at least I'm hoping so," He explained, recieving another small huff from Y/n "We'll stop for a bit. Levy might be able to help when she arrives," 

They headed out into the guild hall for a bit, sitting at the bar and talking to Mirajane. As it was still early, there weren't many people in the guild but it made a nice change.

"So how's it going so far?" Mira asked, leaning against the bar. The H/c girl shared an unsure look with Freed which Mira caught and smirked "Not good?"Freed nodded and she continued "Maybe Freed's just a bad teacher, Levy might be able to help later," 

Freed glared at her and she laughed, standing up fully once more and leaving. Freed stood up from his seat at the bar, his hand wrapping around Y/n's wrist and pulling her towards the library again.

"Freed! Wait!" Y/n shouted in surprise, catching up quickly and adding a bitter "Was that really necessary?"

Freed didn't answer, instead unsheathing his sword, making Y/n's heart race in fear.

"W...What are you doing...?" The H/c girl stuttered as Freed turned to face her with a smirk on his face, doing nothing to calm the H/c mages nerves. He turned away again, his face still covered by his smirk as he began writing in the air with the blade, purple letters appearing in front of him as he spoke.

"I'm going to set up some runes, I want you to rewrite them," He explained and Y/n's face dropped.

"You're kidding," When she didn't receive a reply of any form, she asked in disbelief "You're being serious?" 

Freed simply nodded and finished writing out the runes, the room lit up with a purple glow, letters forming a wall around them. The H/c girl touched the wall, feeling the resistance from the runes.

"I want you to try and rewrite them so that you can get out," Freed instructed and Y/n stared at him blankly.

"I barely know what this says....How can I...?" She asked, feeling the urge to reach out and strangle the rune mage.

"Just try it, you might be surprised. And if you really can't do it, I guess I could let you out," Freed joked lightly, doing nothing to settle the anger radiating from the H/c mage.

She turned her attention to the runes, deciding to ignore the rune mage stood behind her for now. Upon trying to read the purple text, she found that she recognised a couple of characters from before, starting from there and trying to fill in the gaps to create words.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by another voice

"Ah, Freed! Mira said you had come back in her...huh?" Levy was stopped by the wall of runes, sending a look of confusion to the green haired male. Y/n had now turned around to see who she guessed was Levy stood on the other side of the runes.

"Y/n, this is Levy, Levy this is Y/n," Freed quickly introduced before explaining "I thought it would be best to get Y/n to rewrite runes herself after reading a few books didn't work at all," 

"I think I'd rather read more books..." Y/n grumbled with a small pout as she turned back to the runes, continuing trying to decipher what they said.

Levy and Freed both stood back and watched the H/c girl as her eyes ran over the text, working out what it said before speaking.

"Freed?" She asked, turning to the green haired male slightly "You never explained how to actually rewrite it..."

Levy let out a small giggle and Freed moved closer to the H/c girl, taking out his sword once more and demonstrating for Y/n to see. The H/c girl's hands moved to the handles on her daggers, determination filling her eyes as she tried to copy Freed's example. She tried to focus all of her concentration and magic energy into her arm as she tried writing what she hoped was the write symbols to try and rewrite the runes.  
Her eyes flickered between the runes she was writing and the runes still glowing before them, ensuring that they were correct as she began trying to rewrite parts of the script.

Freed hummed behind her which she assumed meant that she had doing it right however, as she reached the last line, her hand shook slightly and the symbol became skewed. The new wall of text began dissolving before her and she gritted her teeth in frustration.  
"Don't worry Y/n, that was good for your first time trying it!" Levy encouraged and Y/n gave her a small smile, glancing at Freed before turning and starting again.  
This time it was much faster as she had remembered what to write, her hand followed her previous movements, reaching the last line and ensuring that her hand stayed steady as she wrote.  
After completing the writing, she saw the original runes begin disintegrating around them.  
Shock was evident on her face as she turned around to see Freed and Levy smiling in encouragement.

"That's a good start, we can carry on if you'd like or we could stop, it's up to you," Freed offered  
"Could I try another one...it's easier to learn like this than from a book," The H/c girl asked and Freed nodded, drawing his sword once more, starting to write the different symbols.  
"So how do you feel about helping with this dark guild?" Levy asked Y/n who thought for a moment before answering  
"I guess I kind of have to....but it's not as if I have much else to do..." The H/c girl trailed off before adding "I want to help... I'm just nervous I guess...I don't want to mess everything up..."  
Freed had stopped what he was doing, glancing behind him to look at Y/n. This was the closest thing to vulnerability he had seen from the H/c girl which surprised him. She didn't seem very open with her feelings which was understandable. Living alone at such a young age could do that he guessed.  
The sad expression on her face was gone in the blink of an eye as the rune mage finished writing, the purple letters glowing around them once more.  
The H/c girl approached the wall of text once more, her eyes scanning over it quickly once then again slower, deciphering what the symbols said.  
She raised her arm again, this time filled with uncertainty. This one definitely seemed like it would be more difficult. Her hand moved to write the symbols, uncertainty clear on her face as she continued.  
Freed watched her, his expression not giving anything away as she began writing the last line of symbols.  
Purple light flooded the room as the symbols glowed brighter before the wall of text dissolved before her.  
"Damn..." The H/c girl muttered, her hands tightening their grip on her daggers.  
"I purposely made this one harder. You seemed to get the other one too easily," Freed explained before adding "Try again,"  
Y/n clenched her teeth and sent a small glare at the rune mage before trying to rewrite the runes again.  
When she got the same result as last time, she turned to Freed and asked  
"Can you at least point out where I'm going wrong,"  
Freed smirked slightly and explained  
"On the third line, you're getting some of the symbols mixed up. See if you can work it out from that,"  
Frustration bubbled under Y/n's skin as he spoke but she started again nonetheless.  
She reached the line that Freed had pointed out and focussed all her concentration on the text in front of her.  
Slowly, realisation began to dawn on her and she continued writing, switching two of the symbols out for similar ones she had seen previously. After completing the text, the runes glowed more, shattering around her once more.  
"You're doing so well Y/n! You must be a fast learner," Levy encouraged, placing a hand on her shoulder.  
"How do you feel about practicing some hand to hand combat?" Freed asked the H/c girl who stared at him in disbelief.  
"With you?" The shock was clear in her voice and her eyes were wide.  
The rune mage nodded before explaining  
"You'll need to know how to fight in case there's guards around the town, which I imagine there will be. Unfortunately rune magic can't help you to attack people, it takes too much time,"  
Y/n nodded in understanding. She had known all along that there would be defense around the town however she had thought that her black magic would be enough to protect herself which she voiced to Freed.  
"But I can use magic to protect myself,"  
The rune mage shook his head slightly with a sigh  
"Yes you can, but it would help to know how to fight in case something happens. You have to be prepared for anything with dark guilds,"  
Y/n grinned and spoke with a small laugh  
"Okay, okay. But I won't lose to you again Freed, yesterday was an exception,"  
She brought her hands up in front of her face, ready to defend herself however Freed spoke again  
"Maybe we should go outside so that we don't destroy anything," he suggested and Y/n agreed. Levy laughed and followed them out the library, seeing Freed leading the way outside to where most of the Fairy Tail wizards trained.  
"I won't go easy on you Y/n," Freed spoke over his shoulder, coming to a stop outside.  
The rune mage removed his sword from his hip as well as the long red coat and Y/n followed his example, taking out her daggers and placing them down away from them.  
She stared straight at the green haired male who smirked in response.  
"I don't want you to go easy on me, there's no fun in that," Y/n grinned back at him, taking a defensive stance with her arms up for defense.  
Freed made he first move, a swift kick coming towards Y/n's exposed side, the H/c girl leaping to the side to avoid the attack.  
She moved to throw a punch towards Freed's face, the rune mage reacting immediately and grasping the H/c girls wrist in his hand.  
He pulled her closer, his other fist landing a hit to her stomach.  
She clenched her teeth in pain and broke out of Freed's hold, her elbow connecting with his chin soon after, forcing him to step back. Trying to catch him off guard, Y/n's leg swung towards his side however, as she hit him, he grabbed her leg, throwing her off balance as she stumbled backwards.  
A small crowd had gathered around them, members of the guild surrounding them to watch. More attacks were sent towards each other, some being blocked and some hitting the other hard.  
Y/n had began panting hard and was glaring at the rune mage who seemed mostly unaffected apart from his slightly heavier breathing.  
It was after another hit from Y/n that Freed managed to catch her off guard, grabbing her wrist once more as she was distracted thinking she had temporarily stopped him. He twisted the limb back behind her, making sure to not actually hurt the H/c girl.  
"Damn you!" She hissed, struggling to free her arm. Freed did nothing but slowly lower the H/c girl to the ground, kneeling behind her as he whispered.  
"I think we're done here,"  
He waited for a reply but none cane so her continued  
"Y/n do you give in?"  
The H/c girl growled at him before struggling more to try and get out of his grasp. Unfortunately he held tight, not moving an inch even as she used her whole strength to fight him off. They were both breathing hard as Y/n stopped moving, eventually nodding, earning a teasing  
"Sorry what was that?" from the rune mage behind her.  
"I give in..." She mumbled, only just loud enough for Freed to hear.  
She felt the hand holding her wrist release its grip and Freed stood up behind her, offering her his hand which she took gratefully, the two of them standing in silence for a moment.  
"Not bad Y/n," He commented and she looked away from him.  
"You too..." She responded, her face flushing slightly "I see what you mean though, I do need to work on this..."  
Freed nodded and reassured  
"It's okay, there's plenty of time,"   
As the two retrieved their weapons, a loud voice came from the crowd that had formed around them  
"Y/n fight me,"   
A pink haired male appeared from the crown, his fists surrounded by fire as he held his arms up in a fighting stance.  
"W..who are you?" Y/n asked unsurely.  
"Natsu leave her alone," Freed spoke as the dragon slayer turned to look at him instead.  
"You fight me then!" The new person Natsu spoke again.  
"No," Freed's answer was short as he walked away from Natsu. Y/n hung back a bit , speaking to Natsu  
"I'll fight you, maybe later though, I didn't expect Freed to be so strong,"  
Natsu nodded victoriously and Y/n gave a last smile before jogging to catch up with Freed.

When she caught up to the rune mage, he turned to her in concern, asking quietly

"I didn't hurt you too much did I?"

Y/n shook her head with a small smile.

"I'm fine, you didn't even try," She pouted and Freed raised his eyebrows at her

"I'm sorry, who was it who just lost?" He asked with a small smirk.

"I mean yeah but you still didn't put one hundred percent into it!" Y/n whined and Freed shook his head at her.

"When you've trained a bit more maybe. It would be unfair for me to go all out at the start," He replied and the H/c girl pouted at him "I promise, when you can defend yourself properly, I will," 

"I'll be sure to hold you to that," Y/n replied with a smirk as they joined Laxus and Bixslow where they sat.


	6. 6 ▫ Take Note

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda forgot to upload this earlier today....whoops...  
> Then I realised I had put the wrong pictures in and had to translate them to try and work out which ones I needed...  
> And to think I thought it would be cool to include them, it just seems like a lot of hard work really  
> I can't say I'm 100% happy with this chapter but it's going to be kind of important in future so uh ye...  
> Also I promise there will be translations of these notes later on.....you'll see...  
> Anyway, enjoy even though it's not the best chapter ever.

Y/n had now been at Fairy Tail for a few days now and everything seemed to be going okay. She had gotten used to the loud, rowdiness of the guild and had begun making some friends. However, she made sure not to get too close to any of them. As soon as this dark guild was taken care of, she was leaving, she couldn't afford to get attached to people here.

She entered the guild that morning with Freed and was immediately called over to the bar by Mira.

She headed over to the white-haired girl, confusion clear on her face and a feeling of unease bubbling in her chest.

Once she was close enough to Mira for her to speak quietly, she was handed a small envelope. Upon looking at Mira's face, she saw the same emotions she was currently feeling mirrored in her eyes.

"This was left on the bar this morning, I'm not sure who left it though, I didn't see anyone come in," The white-haired girl explained, sending a shiver down Y/n's back.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she slid one under the seal on the envelope, pulling out a folded piece of paper. Mira seemed to hold her breath as Y/n unfolded the paper, her face clearly showing her confusion as she finished unfolding the paper.

 

 

"What is it?" Mira asked uncertainly. The H/c girl held the paper out to Mira to show her what it said. Covering the page was what looked like runes, however, none of them were ones which Y/n recognised.

Mira's eyes scanned over them before suggesting

"Maybe you should ask Freed? I'm guessing you don't know what it says?" 

The H/c girl shook her head before adding

"I'm sure it's not important. If it was important why would they write it in some weird code," Y/n brushed it off, shoving the piece of paper into her pocket.

"I feel like you should at least ask Freed if he knows what it says. What if it is important?" Mira asked

"I'm sure it's nothing. But I'll look for something in the library later, I don't want to bother Freed more than I already have," Y/n gave Mira a small smile and she moved to protest.

"Y/n I'm sure you're not..."

"Y/n," Freed appeared behind the H/c girl, unknowingly interrupting the conversation.

"Ah, Freed!" The H/c girl jumped slightly

"Are you ready to train?" The rune mage asked and Y/n nodded quickly, remembering that they had agreed to do more hand to hand combat training and to practice some magic.

"Sorry! I just forgot..." Y/n apologised with a shy smile "Should we go then?" 

Freed nodded and the two of them headed outside.

"How do you feel about using magic whilst fighting today?" Freed asked, turning to face Y/n once they were outside

"Sounds good to me," She replied with a smirk "But I won't lose to you again,"

"We'll see about that," Freed replied.

They began training, the two of them sending attacks towards each other, their focus solely on defeating the other. Y/n made the first move, charging towards the rune mage with a dagger in each hand. As she moved to attack, however, Freed blocked it with his sword, sending his own attack towards the H/c girl. Y/n stumbled backwards at the attack but regained her composure before using her magic to send a ball of shadows directly towards the rune mage. Freed just barely managed to move out of the way, his shoulder being hit by the attack as he sent his own back. The H/c girl felt her head swimming slightly and a frown formed on her face however, she thought nothing of it, continuing the fight with all her effort.

A forceful attack from Y/n sent Freed backwards however, he quickly regained his balance, a smirk forming on his face.

"Dark écriture: fear," He spoke, swinging his sword as purple runes flew quickly towards Y/n. She tried to avoid the attack, rolling onto the ground however, she wasn't fast enough, the runes hitting her directly.

A wave of fear immediately hit her and she squeezed her eyes closed, curling into herself where she knelt on the ground. She had expected Freed's attacks to be powerful however, what she hadn't expected was the extremely vivid vision before her.

_A man with a dark cape stood before her...She was sure she had seen him before...but..where? He knelt down in front of her, a wicked smirk plastered upon what_ _little_ _she_ _could_ _see of his face, the upper part of his face being covered_ _by a large black hood._

_He held a hand out to her, a piece of paper in_ _his_ _hand. Her hand reached out to take it, unfolding the crumpled paper. More unknown runes filled this piece of paper, confusing her greatly, however, as she lifted her head to ask_ _, the man was gone, leaving behind only the strange feeling of being watched. However, the H/c girl hadn't noticed the three other hooded figures who had been watching her fight with Freed, still watching her as she gripped her head._

_The world went black for a moment before blinding bright light filled her vision, causing her to squint in order to see. She was outside a building now, one that gave her a nauseating sense of Deja vu, the bright sunlight hiding the darkness that lurked within. A push to her shoulder sent her tumbling into the door of the building, stumbling inside where possibly hundreds of hooded figures stood in a large circle. She was pushed into the middle by an invisible force as they started moving, further and further in, closer and closer to her until she could barely breathe with how close they were. Just as she thought she was going to get crushed, the whole world went dark and her awareness slowly disappeared._

Freed rushed over to the H/c girl, confusion and fear filling his body. He had stopped his attack as soon as something had seemed wrong however, Y/n looked like she was still being affected by it.

He came closer to her and grasped her shoulders, shaking her gently to try and snap her out of it. When this didn't work, he looked around quickly, seeing no one around who could help. Through the corner of his eye, he swore he saw a figure moving however, as he turned around to shout for them to get help, they were no longer there.

He thought nothing of it and turned his attention back to the H/c girl who' eyes slowly opened. She stared straight at him however, something was wrong. He tried to get her to say something but instead of an answer, he saw her eyes slipping closed as she began falling back.

"Y/n!" He reached out to catch the H/c girl and scooped her up in his arms, quickly carrying her into the guild. 

"Freed, you're back," Mira spoke upon seeing the rune mage before she spotted Y/n in his arms lifelessly. "Y/n!  What happened?"

Freed's eyes were wide as he walked behind Mira on the way to the infirmary.

"I...don't know..." Freed spoke, his voice unsteady. He placed Y/n down on one of the beds and Mira checked her pulse. "We were practising and I used dark écriture: fear but something didn't seem right so I stopped and she just stayed there and then collapsed.

Confusion was clear on Mira's face as she asked

"That doesn't usually happen right?"

Freed shook his head in response, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. 

Movement coming from Y/n caught their attention as a small groan escaped the H/c girls mouth.

She blinked up at Freed and Mira in confusion and the two stared back at her equally confused.

"Freed who was that man?" She asked with a small grimace on her face at the memory. Freed stared back at her blankly and Mira glanced between the two.

"What man? Are you alright?" The rune mage asked, becoming more concerned by the second.

"When you attacked...A man with a cloak appeared. He gave me a piece of paper but I don't know where it went or what it said....Where did he go?" Y/n tried to explain, looking around the room.

"There was no man Y/n. I was the only one who was there," Freed spoke before remembering the figure he had seen who disappeared after. "I thought I saw someone when you collapsed but it was probably my imagination,"

"Hm," Mira seemed deep in thought. "I think it would be best to get Porlyusica to check over her," Freed nodded and Mira continued "Can you go and get her, I'll keep an eye on Y/n," 

Freed agreed and gave one last glance at Y/n before leaving, using his runes to teleport as it would be faster.

Mira and Y/n both watched him leave before Mira turned back to the H/c girl who's face was contorted in confusion.

She pulled two pieces of paper out of her pocket, unfolding them both and Mira recognised one as the one from earlier, however, the other was new, using the same unknown symbols.

 

 

 

 

"There it is. The man gave me this...I don't know what it says though...." Y/n mumbled and Mira felt dread bubbling up inside her. Freed was right, something definitely wasn't right, but could they work out what before it was too late? "Is there anyone in the guild who wears a black cloak sort of with a large hood? I couldn't see their face but they were grinning," Y/n asked and Mira shook her head

"No one that I know of...But Freed didn't see anyone with you....Hm..." Mira thought "I'll go and ask master if he knows anything," 

Y/n nodded and Mira left the room, telling her to stay where she was before she went to go and find master Makarov.

The H/c girl stared at the two pieces of paper, trying to recall any runes that looked similar to the symbols used however there were none. 

"Maybe I should ask Freed about it...." Y/n mumbled to herself, before shaking her head at the thought. "I'll have a look in the library later...I don't want to bother him,"

Soon after, the door opened and Mira returned with master Makarov behind her.  
"Hm, there's definitely no one in the guild who matches your description. What else did you see after this man Y/n?" Makarov asked and Y/n cast her mind back to earlier.  
"There was a room...And it was full of people...They all moved closer to me but that's all I really remember..."  
"And you said that Freed used his dark écriture?" Mira nodded "It could simply be the effect of the magic but what's concerning is that it continued even when he stopped. We'll have to see what Porlyusica says but it may have just been an after effect. Hopefully, that's all it was," 

The two stayed in the room with Y/n until Freed returns with Porlyusica following.  
The old woman didn't look impressed as she approached Y/n, the H/c girl cowering away slightly from the intimidating woman.  
"Hm, you don't seem too injured. It is strange but there is nothing I can do," She spoke and Mira glanced at Y/n in concern.  
"Can I leave now then?" Y/n asked as Porlyusica left the room.  
Mira looked unsure but nodded before adding  
"But no more training for today at least, take it easy,"  
The H/c girl nodded and stood up, making her way over to Freed and teasing him by saying  
"Don't look so worried about me, I'm fine,"  
His lips pressed into a thin line as he followed after her  
"I'm allowed to be worried when it was my magic that caused that,"  
"But you don't have to be because it didn't cause any actual harm," she reassured, trying to reach out and ruffle Freed's hair however he caught her wrist before she could "Okay, okay, I won't do it. But anyway I'm going to go to the library for a while to look for more books on runes," she spoke, taking her hand back as Freed nodded.  
"Alright, I'll be somewhere out here if you need me,"  
And with that Y/n made her way to the library, her fingers clenching around the two notes she had received.  
She would find out what they said, what they meant. She wouldn't bother Freed with this, not this time.


	7. 7 ▫ Friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: Guess who should be revising for exams.....me! But I needed to proofread this chapter and now I wanna finish some other fics I have lying around :((((( someone needs to force me to revise cos I don't wanna, psychology is ridiculously boring :((((
> 
> But anyway, enjoy this chapter, I feel like I'm dragging this fic out too much but I promise it will get interesting soon!

The H/c girl made her way into the library, unsure of where to start as she stared around herself at the shelves upon shelves full of books. She cast her mind back to the other day, trying to work out where it was that Freed had looked for the books he had shown her on rune magic. Heading over to where she thought the right shelf was. Her eyes scanned over the spines of the books, holding up one of the notes for reference as she tried to spot some of the foreign symbols on one of the books.  
She had no luck and moved into the next shelf however, a voice behind her startled her.  
"Hey, are you alright? Can I help you find something?"  
Y/n spun around in surprise and spotted a blonde girl stood before her. She recognised her from the guild but wasn't entirely sure of her name which the other mage seemed to sense.  
"I'm Lucy, you're Y/n aren't you?" Y/n nodded and Lucy gave her a wide smile "I  spend quite a lot of time in here, I might be able to help if you're looking for something in particular," she offered and Y/n gave a small smile in return.  
"Ah, no it's okay, I don't want to bother you," The H/c girl mumbled and Lucy shook her head  
"It's no problem, I've been wanting to talk to you for a couple of days now, I know Natsu has already asked to fight you," she laughed and Y/n nodded.

"I was looking for books about runes? I think, I'm not too sure if they are but I'm trying to work out what these notes say," Y/n answered, showing the piece of paper to Lucy who hummed.

"I could ask Levy if you'd like?" The blonde haired girl offered and Y/n's eyes widened

"No!" She spoke, startling Lucy "I'm sorry I just, don't want people to worry, it's something I'll be able to do on my own,"

Lucy gave her a sceptical look before approaching the H/c girl.

"I won't tell anyone. But at least let me help you. There possibly millions of books in here, it would take you forever to look through them all," Lucy began looking through one of the other shelves, adding a quick "I think you're looking in the right section though for runes," 

The two began searching in relative silence, the only noise being occasional comments when they found something that might be of use.

Soon enough, a small pile of relevant books were stacked on the table which Y/n frowned at. They still hadn't found anything that looked exactly like the symbols in the notes, only slight similarities. However, it was better than nothing. And Y/n was growing more and more curious about what the two notes said.

"So you and Freed seem pretty close huh?" Lucy asked teasingly, receiving a deadpan look from Y/n

"No. not really. I'm just staying with him until this town is sorted out and then I'm leaving the guild. getting attached to people here won't help me at all," Y/n explained and Lucy stared at her in disbelief before a grin stretched across her face.

"You should come on a mission with us, I'm sure Natsu will try to change your mind,"

Y/n stared at the blonde in disbelief before mumbling a quiet.

"You don't want me to go on a mission with you, I can barely use most of my magic. And I'm not going to change my mind so everyone might as well give up. People can't be trusted, nothing will change that,"

A frown made it's way onto Lucy's face as she heard this.

"It doesn't matter if you can't use your magic, it will give you more practice, I want you to come on a mission with us,"

The H/c girl sat down with a sigh, staring at the pile of books in front of her.

"I shouldn't have come here..." She mumbled, her hand rubbing over her guild mark as she stared, unblinking in front of her.

Lucy approached the H/c girl and sat down next to her, her hand coming to rest on Y/n's back as a form of comfort.

"Something's clearly bothering you, do you want to talk about it?" the blonde asked and Y/n immediately shook her head.

"I barely even know you," Y/n glanced at Lucy who gave a small smile before replying

"And? It doesn't matter. Fairy Tail is a big family, anyone here can talk about anything, even you,"

The H/c girl shook her head.

"I don't know why they thought I could help. So far all I've done is cause trouble,"

Lucy moved to grab Y/n's shoulders and turn her so that they were facing each other, a slightly angry look on the blonde's face. Y/n's eyes widened as she thought she had annoyed the other girl.

"You're seriously underestimating yourself! There's clearly something special about you otherwise you wouldn't be here right now, and you've done nothing to cause trouble, I heard about what happened before and if that's what you mean by you've 'caused trouble' then you're wrong. Being injured isn't causing trouble, there was nothing you could do to stop it,"

Y/n looked down with a forced smile on her face.

"I don't think you understand. My family....they...they weren't very trustworthy...If they found out I was here...I...." She glanced up, a small bitter laugh escaping her "I don't want to think about what they'd do...to me...and the rest of the guild"

The room was quiet for a while before Lucy spoke again.

"We're here to protect you. Whatever your parents do, we'll protect you, we've done it before, and we'll do it again," 

Y/n stared in disbelief at the blonde girl, a small smile making its way onto her face.

"I guess it's true what people say about Fairy Tail. They really do care about everyone in the guild,"

"I still think you should come on a mission with us. If you're not confident fighting yet, we can find something that doesn't involve fighting," Lucy offered and the H/c girl nodded slightly.

"Okay, okay. I can tell you're not going to drop this. I'm sorry I'm just a bit...freaked out? Because of what happened before I guess,"

"Great!" The blonde girl sounded enthusiastic before she turned the pile of books once more. "Should we continue looking then?"

Y/n nodded and they each took a book as they began to flick through the pages, the two notes laid out on the table between them as they tried to find some similarities with the symbols in the books. 

After around an hour of tirelessly flicking through books, Y/n's eyes widened as she read the next page of the book she was reading. The book itself had been about the origins or rune magic however, she had neared the end of the book and had found nothing related to the notes. Until she reached the last section of the book; ancient rune magic.

The book explained that the very earliest forms of rune magic known had been pretty much forgotten by everyone and that the only known recording of the ancient magic was in a book simply titles  _runes_. She read on further and stared at the small printed photo in the corner or the page. It was an old photo and so the quality wasn't great however, she swore that she could match a few of the letters on the cover of the book with some of those in the notes.

She nudged Lucy and slid the book across the table to her, the blonde scanning over the page, her eyes widening at what she read.

"G.R. Castelle....I've never heard of them before..." She mumbled and Y/n nodded. Whilst she wasn't the biggest fan of books, she too had never heard of the author.

"That book has answers, I know it," Y/n spoke surely. Sharp pain jolting through her stomach distracted her momentarily and she winced, curling into herself. Lucy's concerned voice flooded into her ears and she gritted her teeth and sat up straight.

"Are you alright?" Lucy's eyes were filled with fear as she stared at Y/n's face, looking for an answer

"I'm fine...Don't know what that was but I think it's gone now," The H/c girl spoke, brushing off Lucy's concern. "That book.... there are only ten copies....Where could there be one....?"

Y/n was busy mumbling to herself and making a note on a spare piece of paper of the book title and author, along with the book and page where they found it when Freed entered the library. Lucy spotted him and waved him over, Y/n still lost in his thoughts as the rune mage approached.

The H/c girl only noticed Freed when she felt Lucy nudge her and she looked up. The H/c girl scrambled slightly to hide the two notes under the books which Lucy noticed, giving a questioning stare to the H/c girl.

"Is everything okay?" The rune mage asked, also noticing Y/n's strange behaviour. She nodded in response, adding a quick

"Yeah, of course,"

Freed gave her a quizzical look but accepted it as he explained

"I'm going to go to the shop to get some ingredients to make dinner if you need anything, just ask anyone okay?"

Y/n nodded and Freed gave her another quizzical look before leaving the library.  
"What was all that about? Why don't you want him to know?" Lucy asked and the H/c girl tensed up at the question.  
"No reason...I'm not trying to hide it..."  
Lucy gestured to the notes which were now hidden under the books.  
"Okay, okay...I just...don't want to worry him, I'm causing him enough trouble as it is," The H/c girl explained and Lucy surprisingly laughed, confusing Y/n.  
"Sorry, it's just kinda funny... You're not causing trouble, in fact, I think he might secretly enjoy your company," The blonde haired girl smirked and Y/n didn't seem to get the hint.  
"You're just trying to make me feel better, it's fine though. I'll work out what they say and if it's something he should know about I'll tell him," The H/c girl replied

"-Lucy! I found a mission for us!" Natsu's loud voice was heard before the dragon slayer appeared in front of the two girls."Y/n? You should come with us too, look,"  
The fire dragon slayer seemed enthusiastic and so Lucy and Y/n glanced over the mission, glancing towards each other.  
The request included finding a boy who had gone missing a few days ago and trying to find out where he had gone or who had taken him.   
"I tried to find something that wasn't too extreme because you said you'd invite Y/n," Natsu explained.  
"Actually, I'm not sure I want t..." Y/n was cut off by Lucy.  
"It's sorted, Y/n will come with us on this mission!"  
"I never said that!" The H/c girl protested.  
"Please? I promise you it won't be too bad," the blonde girl pleaded to which Y/n sighed and agreed reluctantly.  
 _At least it shouldn't take too long with Natsu's dragon slayer senses. They should be able to find someone pretty quickly, besides it couldn't hurt to give Freed some peace and quiet._  
With this thought, she felt a bit better about the mission, at least if she went on missions she wouldn't be completely reliant on the rune mage who had already done so much for her.  
And so, Natsu hurried off to tell the rest of their team whilst Lucy and Y/n returned to researching the ancient runes.


	8. 8 ▫ New Missions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof so much has been going on recently I've hardly had any time to write... :(((( Hopefully that will change soon (Fingers crossed) But luckily, I have a couple of chapters mostly written out, they just need to be checked and some parts rewritten so thank you past me for writing ahead
> 
> But anyway, enjoy this chapter :)))))

Later that night, Y/n and Freed sat down to eat and Y/n began explaining to Freed that she would be going on with Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Erza.  
The rune mage nodded  
"I guess it will be a good experience for you, it's very different using magic on a mission than it is in practice, but...I can't say I think it's the best idea,"  
Y/n hummed and joked lightly  
"It's not as if I really had a choice, they'd practically decided I was going with them before they'd even asked,"  
"So did you read anything interesting earlier?" The rune mage asked and the H/c girl nodded.  
"I've found the title of a book I'd like to find, I'll probably look for a library in Magnolia when I get back,"  
They finished eating and began clearing up and Freed offered  
"I can show you a couple of book shops when you get back if you'd like?"  
The H/c girl shook her head   
"It's okay, I can go alone, I'm causing too much trouble already,"

Freed frowned upon hearing this, thinking back to earlier in the day when Y/n had clearly hidden something in the library. As much as he tried to convince himself that it was nothing serious, there was a bad feeling about it hiding in the back of his mind.

That night, fog settled around Magnolia, obscuring people's vision so much so that it was impossible to see two metres in front of you. Freed stared out the window with a frown on his face.

"What's wrong?" Y/n asked and the rune mage turned to her.

"Nothing, the weather has just been fairly strange recently, it's giving me a bad feeling" Freed gave a small smile as reassurance "I'm sure it's nothing though, you should go to bed. What time are you meeting the others?"

"Twelve O clock at the train station," Y/n replied and Freed nodded.

"You should sleep, you're going to need it to deal with Natsu and Gray," The rune mage suggested as he left the room. Y/n followed his advice and crawled into bed, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

She awoke early the next morning, having been disturbed from her sleep by a recurring nightmare. After tossing and turning all night, it appeared the dream had finally woken her up. And so, she climbed out of bed quietly and headed to the bathroom, going for a quick shower.

When she exited the bathroom again, she could hear Freed and so she headed in the direction of the kitchen, seeing the rune mage looking through one of the cupboards.

"Ah, Y/n. I was wondering where you'd gone," A frown formed on his face however as he saw her, leaving the H/c girl confused as to why. "Your hair is wet, you'll catch a cold if you don't dry it," He spoke, ushering the H/c girl back to the bathroom as he pulled out a hairdryer from the cupboard.

He grabbed a brush and ran it through Y/n's hair before switching the hair dryer on, beginning to dry her hair.

"I can do this myself you know," Y/n pointed out and the rune mage didn't reply. The H/c girl huffed in slight annoyance and allowed Freed to continue working. If she was being completely honest, it did feel kind of good to have Freed's hands running through her hair.

She snapped out of her thoughts, shaking her head as if to remove the thought from her head completely which Freed noticed, asking a quiet

"Are you okay?"

Y/n glanced around in confusion before realising what she had done and answering with a quiet

"Yeah, I'm alright,"

Freed paused for a moment as if trying to tell whether she was telling the truth before continuing.

Once he had finished, he ran the brush through Y/n's hair once more, hearing Y/n say a small

"Thanks," 

The two made their way back to the kitchen in silence and Freed began gathering ingredients to make them breakfast.

Y/n offered to help him and so she gathered the ingredients needed as Freed began cooking. Once they had finished, the silence continued through them eating, getting more and more awkward with the more time that passed.

Luckily, the time came from Y/n to leave and head to the train station and so, after she had finished getting ready, Freed offered to show her the way to the train station which she accepted. Y/n was thankful that it was only a short walk, meaning that the awkward silence didn't have to continue for too long. She spotted Natsu and Lucy already stood by the train when she arrived and she turned to Freed saying a quick goodbye and promising to be safe. As she approached the two mages, she saw Natsu clinging to Lucy looking as if he was about to be sick and Lucy giving her a small wave.

"Is he okay?" The H/c mage asked and Lucy nodded and replied

"It happens all the time, don't worry about it," 

They waited a few more minutes until Gray and Erza arrived before boarding the train, Lucy introducing Y/n to Erza and Gray.

Conversation seemed to happen naturally and Y/n found herself enjoying their company and they talked about their different types of magic, other interests and everything in between. She was caught off guard however when Gray asked

"So you're staying with Freed? That must be interesting,"  
The H/c girl looked at him in confusion and nodded slowly  
"Yeah, I guess. It's really not all that exciting though,"  
Lucy decided to join in the conversation at that moment  
"I mean he's not in the guild a lot of the time, him, Evergreen and Bixslow are usually on missions. I don't think I've really seen him talk to many people other than his team,"

"Yeah, he and Evergreen insisted that I stay with one of them because they were the ones who asked me to come to Fairy Tail, not that it was necessary," Y/n explained "I can't say I really know him too well though,"

"Do you two not talk much?" Lucy asked

"We talk I guess but It's...awkward...He seems concerned about me which is different to what I'm used to so I kind of keep pushing him away," Y/n explained "But I guess it doesn't matter, I'm only here to finish this mission and then I'll be leaving, it's no use getting attached to people,"

"But you don't have to leave after you've finished the mission, you're welcome to stay at Fairy Tail, I'm sure everyone would love for you to stay," Erza protested, however, Y/n just gave them a sad smile and answered

"I...I can't...I'm sure Fairy Tail is great but, it's not for me," 

There was a longing tone in her voice which Lucy picked up on, placing a hand on the H/c girls shoulder as a form of reassurance

"But anyway, I guess I can try and enjoy it whilst I'm here," Y/n gave a small smile and the conversation turned back to normal.

The atmosphere in the train carriage changed however when Lucy mentioned something about Y/n's past, asking about her family. The tension in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife and the celestial wizard realised her mistake as soon as she had said it. Nevertheless, Y/n tried to answer as vaguely as possible however, she was silenced by a concerned looking Erza.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked, noticing that Gray's attention had also been caught by something. The two shared a glance before they both stood up from their seats, heading out of the train carriage. Voices could be heard, two of which belonged to Erza and Gray and the other was unknown.

The words were too muffled for them to make out however, they heard something about spying which unnerved them.

"Who are you?" Erza's commanding voice could be heard however the unknown person's voice was too quiet to be heard as he replied.

Lucy and Y/n exchanged concerned glances as the muffled conversation continued outside. Not too long later, however, Erza and Gray returned, giving them slightly forced smiles.

"He was apparently a fan of the guild, that doesn't excuse it though. We're best looking out for people like that, especially with Y/n with us," Erza explained and Lucy's frown grew even more.

"That's strange...that's never happened on a mission before,"

"Yeah, whoever they are, they're gone now, that's what matters," Gray reassured.

The rest of the train ride was fairly quiet, Y/n and Lucy seemed slightly shaken by the revelation that someone had been following them and luckily before they knew it, they were exiting the train, Erza and Gray dragging a sickly looking Natsu who practically cheered once his feet hit solid ground.

"It's getting quite late, we should head to the hotel and start searching tomorrow," Erza suggested and the rest agreed, making their way to the tall building where they were to stay that night.

However, lurking in the shadows behind them, a dark figure followed them, hidden from sight with a large grin plastered upon their face as they walked.

They reached the hotel and entered the reception, talking with the receptionist who handed their keys over with a smile, directing them towards their rooms upstairs on the second floor.

Almost as soon as Y/n had entered the room after Erza and Lucy, a vibrating came from the lacrima phone which Freed had insisted she take with her just in case.

She pulled the device out of her pocket and looked at the screen, swiping the button across and holding it up to her ear.

"Y/n?" Freed's voice came through the speaker and Lucy and Erza glanced at the H/c girl in curiosity.

"Yeah?" She replied, her voice laced with confusion.

"Are you alright?" The rune mages voice sounded full of concern as Y/n gestured towards Lucy and Erza that she was going outside for a moment.

"Yeah?" the reply came out as more of a question "Why is there something wrong?"

"You tell me. What are these weird notes you left?" 

The rune mages words made the H/c girl freeze in place, her throat feeling extremely dry and she desperately wracked her brain for an excuse

"Y/n?" Freed's voice came through the speaker again and Y/n had to clear her throat before she answered, unable to come up with a believable excuse

"I don't know," The H/c girl mumbled

"What do you mean you don't know?" Y/n could already imagine the frustrated look on the rune mages face as she answered

"I don't know what they say," She clarified before deciding it would be best to face the music and tell him "Mira gave me one which she had found in the guild with my name on and the other one I found in my pocket after we fought and I saw that strange man. I remember he tried to give me something before he disappeared so it might be from whatever that was," 

"Do you have any idea where the first one came from?" Freed's voice was now filled with concern and The H/c girl shook her head before realising he couldn't see her.

"No, I...I might have been looking for books to help translate them yesterday....I...I wasn't going to tell you in all honesty..."

"What?" The shock was clear in the rune mages voice and Y/n felt guilty for not telling him "Look, no matter what you think, you're not bothering any of us, even if you feel like you are. You need to tell us when things like this happen so we can protect you, I have a really bad feeling about this,"

"I'm sorry...I just didn't want you to worry..." Y/n spoke quietly, her eyes focused on the floor in front of her as if she'd make direct eye contact with the rune mage who wasn't physically there if she so much as lifted her head slightly.

"You're an idiot," Freed chastised lightly "Did you find any information about them yesterday?"

"Just the name of an old book that might help. I'm not sure where to start with looking for it though, that's why I was going to go to some libraries when I got back to look," 

The rune mage was quiet for a minute before he asked

"Is everything okay with the mission so far?"

Y/n was caught off guard and answered with a small

"Yeah, I guess. Are you sure everything's alright?" She heard a sigh before he replied again

"I just have a bad feeling about it. So nothing strange has happened?"

Her mind flashed back to the train ride where the man had been listening to them however, Erza and Gray had explained that he was only interested because they were from Fairy Tail, surely that couldn't mean anything, right?

"Nothing's happened. You don't need to worry, everything's under control," She reassured which seemed to satisfy Freed.

"I should let you go, it's getting late. I will try and look into the language these are written in if I can. Please just promise you'll be safe, strange things have been happening since you've been here I can't help but be concerned,"

"I'm sure everything will be fine, I'll look for that book when I get back," Y/n replied, and Freed hummed.

"Tell me if anything happens okay?" Upon hearing a quiet 'yes' from Y/n the rune mage continued "Goodnight Y/n,"

"Goodnight to you too," The H/c girl responded as the call ended. 

She made her way back into the room she was sharing with Lucy and Erza, immediately receiving curious gazes and teasing grins from them both.

"So?" Lucy asked, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement

"So?" Y/n mirrored in confusion.

"Why was he calling you this late?" Erza supplied helpfully.

"It was really nothing interes-" The H/c girl was cut off by Lucy who shook her head at her

"You have to tell us,"

"Honestly, it was nothing," The H/c girl protested in between Lucy and Erza's excited chatter

"Did he call you just to say goodnight?"

"Did he call and say he loved you?"

"Is he missing you?

The questions kept coming, leaving no room for Y/n to even attempt to answer and she eventually gave up, speaking slightly louder than usual to be heard over the mindless chatter

"He was asking about the notes I got yesterday, he seems to think something bad is going to happen,"  
The other two girls went quiet as they heard Y/n's answer  
"Notes?" Erza was the first to speak  
"I...I'm not sure how to explain it but I received two notes yesterday written in some strange language, Lucy and I were trying to decode them but we couldn't find anything so we're still unsure what they say," The H/c girl explained   
"And Freed thinks it's something bad?" The Requip mage asked, to which Y/n nodded. "Hm, we'll make sure to be careful then, for now, though we should go to bed,"  
Lucy and Y/n agreed after another teasing remark from Lucy of  
"He's worried about you, how cute!" Which gained her a glare and a small hit from Y/n.  
They each began getting changed and ready for bed, settling down and talking quietly amongst themselves before they fell asleep.

_The darkness shrouded the figure and obscured them from view as they slowly crept around the corner, approaching the familiar hotel building. Eyes crept down to check the watch strapped to their wrist, reading the time_ _and_ _hesitating a second before continuing with their stealthy approach. Upon reaching the double doors, they entered the hotel, a large hood blocking their face from view as they began ascending the stairs, smirking when they reached the second floor. Echoing footsteps sounded as they walked slowly down the hallway, coming to a halt outside one of the doors. A quick glance at the door next door told them it was safe to continue as they slowly opened the door, slipping inside and immediately waving a hand around, gold dust flying around the room and fluttering down over the three sleeping figures. They couldn't take any chances, after all, sleeping magic would ensure they could complete their mission in peace. And so, they turned to the large empty wall, a wicked grin plastered upon their face as they raised their hand._   
_It was time..._


	9. 9 ▫ Lost And Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be honest, it's getting kinda hard to keep up with this story, I only have weekends to write now and even then, I can't spend all my time writing but I'm gonna try and carry on with weekly updates for as long as I possibly can.

Sunlight began streaming into the room through the thin curtains the next morning, rousing Y/n from what had been a fairly peaceful sleep. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked towards the clock hung on the wall, seeing that it was still quite early. The room seemed strangely fuzzy and she sat up in bed, squinting into the room which looked like it was full of fog.

dark letters caught her eye and she felt a spike of fear as she stared wide-eyed at the wall opposite the bed where she now sat bolt upright. Covering the previously plain white walls were dark glowing purple runes, the same unfamiliar symbols from the other notes.

She hadn't realised the choked out noise of fear that she had made which had awoken both Lucy an Erza who now looked over to her with concern clear in their faces. The H/c girl simply lifted her hand to point towards the writing, both other girls gazes following and seeing the writing, their eyes widening too.

"Is anyone hurt?" Erza asked, jumping out of bed and walking closer to the glowing text.

"No, I don't think so," Lucy checked over her arms and legs just in case and Y/n did the same, feeling horror clawing up her throat, feeling like acid in her stomach.

Erza turned to the H/c girl to see why she hadn't replied and immediately rushed over when she saw what Y/n was staring at.

On each wrist, a small line of purple runes ran, the symbols small but this time recognisable.

Lucy had also approached and had taken Y/n's other wrist, examining the writing.

"These are just normal runes? Right...?" Lucy asked, recognising a few of the symbols from watching Levy use her magic, as well as the few times she had seen Freed's runes.

"Yeah...but why...? Why are these normal and the other ones aren't?" Y/n mumbled

"Can you read what it says?" Erza asked and the H/c girl brought her wrist to eye level, starting to read the individual letters.

After a few moments, the H/c girl looked up in confusion, looking at the runes on the wall again.

"It sounds like some sort of protection spell but I'm not one hundred per cent sure, it just doesn't seem right. Why is this the only thing that is written normally?" She spoke and Erza's concern only grew as she suggested

"Maybe we should postpone the mission, something seems off about this," 

"No, no, I'll be okay, don't postpone it because of me. It doesn't seem to be anything harmful so I'm sure it can wait until the end of the mission to sort out?"

"Maybe we should ask Freed about it just in case?" Lucy suggested and Y/n immediately shook her head

"It's fine, honestly. The runes on my wrist are nothing harmful and the ones on the wall...They're..." Y/n's voice was full of confusion as she glanced back at the wall, scrambling up from where she sat to rush forwards towards the wall" They're...gone....."

She looked back at the other two mages, panic clear on her face as she glanced down at her wrists again. 

The purple letters still glowed as they had done before however, the wall was completely blank. Even as the H/c girl ran her hand over where the text had been, there was nothing, not even a trace of what was once there.

"What...?" The H/c girl mumbled, and Lucy and Erza approached her.

"Are you sure about continuing the mission? I don't want you to continue just because you feel obliged to, your safety comes first," Erza asked and Y/n nodded, her voice quiet as she replied

"I'm not going to let this get to me, whoever is sending these notes clearly wants just that, to stop me, and it's not going to work,"

The Requip mage nodded, accepting that there was no way for her to change Y/n's mind.

"I'll go and wake Natsu, Happy and Gray up, we'll set off earlier and then we should hopefully finish this job earlier," Erza stated, using her magic to quickly get dressed as Y/n and Lucy went to go and change.

The group met outside the two rooms, the dragon slayer and ice wizards both complaining about being awoken so early before being silenced by Erza.

"If we set off now, we might be lucky and finish this job by tonight. Let's go," Erza stated, leaving no room for arguments as they made their way out of the hotel, thanking the receptionist on the way out before heading towards the house of the person who had sent in the request.

They reached a small cottage near the outskirts of town, knocking firmly on the door which was quickly answered by a distressed looking man.

"You must be from Fairy Tail, come in," He led them inside to the living room where an equally upset looking woman sat, staring blankly at the wall opposite her.

"It's our son, he left home around three days ago to go to the markets in the centre of town but he never returned, we're worried that something has happened to him and have tried everything we can to find him, this is our last idea," The man explained, his voice sounding rough, presumably from crying.

"We will try our very best to find your son sir," Erza spoke "Would you by any chance have anything that smells of him, my friend here is a dragon slayer so he should be able to follow his scent," 

The woman snapped her head towards them and nodded frantically upon hearing the possibility that her son may be found.

She gestured for them to follow her and led them to what the presumed was their son's bedroom. Natsu smelt the air, his eyes closing as he tried to memorise the scent. He nodded soon after and the group said their goodbyes to the family before heading out, going straight towards the town centre where they had been told he was last.

Once they reached the markets, Natsu took over with his enhanced sense of smell, directing the group who talked quietly amongst themselves.

They were led through narrow streets, Natsu following the faint smell on what he assumed was the path that the man had taken before he had disappeared.

The dragon slayer stopped suddenly when they reached the forest surrounding the town, turning towards his team

"We're close, but..." He trailed off, leaving the rest of the group curious before he continued quietly "We should probably expect the worst, I'm pretty sure I can smell blood. And it doesn't seem like he's moved much recently,"

Erza gave a solemn nod and the group continued further into the forest. Natsu slowed down soon, guiding them towards a small clearing in the trees which was shadowed by the branches overhead.

Everyone in the group's eyes widened as they saw the lifeless looking body in the centre of the clearing. Natsu moved to rush over to the body however, Y/n grabbed his arm, holding him in place.

"Wait," The H/c girl spoke, slowly approaching. As she suspected, a circle of symbols surrounded the body, drawn in the dirt which she briefly overlooked, taking another step closer, being sure not to stand on the symbols. As she moved further, she put her arm out in front of herself, soon enough hitting an invisible wall which flashed purple, displaying the runes surrounding the body.

"How did you...?" Gray trailed off, to which Y/n shrugged

"It was just a hunch," She answered, her eyes running over the runes. "Luckily it seems that this is normal rune magic, the ones drawn in the dirt though," She glanced behind her with a barely contained grimace  "It's the same ones as on the wall and in the notes,"

"Is there anything you can do?" Lucy sounded concerned and the H/c girl turned to give what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I can try to, I think these may be a bit more difficult than the ones I've practised though,"  
The rest of the group waited in tense silence as Y/n began reading the runes, decoding what they said before she lifted her hand up to start trying to rewrite them. Some parts of the text didn't fully make sense to her but she figured that it would become clear as she continued and so, she began writing I'm the air, purple runes appearing before her.  
Everything was silent as they watched the H/c girl work, intrigued by the text and what is said.  
It didn't take too long before Y/n reached the end of the text, having filled in gaps that she was unsure of as she worked.  
She reached the last symbol, finishing the rewritten text before stepping away from the wall which glowed a bright, almost blinding light purple, making the group wince before an even brighter beam of light came from the rune wall towards Y/n, hitting her and throwing her back towards the ground.  
"Y/n!" Erza rushed over to the H/c girl and helped her to sit up.  
"Okay, I must have gotten something wrong," Y/n explained, moving to stand up, surprisingly not in any pain despite the attack.

"Your wrists are glowing," Lucy pointed out, drawing the group's attention to the runes written across Y/n's skin, "You said it sounded like some sort of protection spell right? Maybe that's what it was. It protected you,"

The H/c girl nodded and stared down at her wrists, walking towards the rune wall again.  
Something seemed off however as her eyes scanned over the text. The letters had completely rearranged themselves to write something completely different and this time, a timer had appeared on the top of the wall.

"What...?" Y/n mumbled, reading over the text "Oh no...nononono,"  
"What's wrong?" Natsu's voice came from next to her as his finger reached out to touch the wall, an electric shock sending him straight back.  
"Don't touch it you dumbass," Y/n gave him a small glare before answering  
"It says that because I got it wrong if I don't undo it in 30 minutes, the entire thing will explode,"  
"What?" Lucy's voice was a higher pitch than usual and sounded panicked.  
"I'll get it this time I promise," Y/n began writing again, making sure not to make any mistakes as she tried her best to ensure that everything she wrote was correct.  
However, a low grumble came from the forest, seeming to surround the clearing. Strange wolf-like animals began emerging from the trees, prowling closer before leaping to attack, heading for Y/n.  
The H/c girl was knocked off balance as one jumped at her leg, it's teeth sinking into her skin before it was pulled away by Gray who immediately attacked it.  
The rune wall had shattered again and the timer had now decreased to 15 minutes, the text on the wall changing once more.  
Y/n tried quickly scanning her eyes over the text however there were multiple moments that she didn't understand what it said, feeling panic rising I'm her chest as she heard her teammates fighting off the wolves around them.  
"Y/n!" Erza's voice was heard from behind her and the H/c girl spun around to face the Requip mage. An object was thrown in her direction and she scrambled to catch it as she heard Erza call "Call Freed and ask him to help!"   
She returned to fighting off one of the beast-like creatures and Y/n used the lacrima phone to call Freed, feeling her hands shaking as she held it up to her ear, hearing the ringing noise echoing in her head.  
"Come on..." She mumbled to herself as her eyes glued themselves to the timer.  
 _13 minutes 37 seconds left_.  
The phone went silent and she almost sighed in relief however it was an automated message that played rather than Freed's voice.  
"No!" She tried again, listening to the ringing again with her breathing coming heavily.  
After what seemed like an eternity, Freed's voice came through the speaker.  
"Y/n? What's wrong?"  
The H/c girl released the breath she had been holding as she checked the timer again.  
12 minutes, 48 seconds.  
"I need your help, I can't explain now because we're running out of time but can you tell me what some of these runes mean if I describe them to you? It's really important," She barely breathed as she spoke, anxiety coursing through her veins.  
"Yeah, of course, go ahead," Freed responded, concern clear in his voice.  
The H/c girl lifted her other hand which shook as she began writing the first part which she knew. When she reached an unknown symbol, she began explaining to Freed as quickly as possible.  
She had gotten halfway through the text as the timer hit 5 minutes and she felt a sharp pain in her leg, immediately spotting the beast from before, its claws dug deep into her leg. She turned her attention away, trying to focus on what she was doing as Freed continued helping with unknown symbols.  
The beast was soon wiped out by Erza who sliced across, killing it immediately and Y/n let out a sigh of relief, feeling the strange sensation of the wounds healing quickly.  
Her hands shook wildly as she carried on writing, almost at the end. A small glance up showed her that the timer had reached 30 seconds and a second glance towards the rune told her that she had 6 more symbols to write, 4 of which were unknown.  
She explained them as quickly as possible to the rune mage who replied as soon as he managed to visualise what she had explained, however, as they reached the last letter, Freed quietly confessed.  
"I don't actually know...that sounds like another language..."  
"Freed!" Y/n begged desperately "There are only ten seconds left!"  
It was silent for a moment before Freed's voice spoke quietly again.  
"I'm sorry Y/n I don't know. It sounds almost like a mix of the symbols for c and k so maybe try CK, I'm sorry I'm not much help,"  
The H/c girl took a deep breath as she wrote out the last two symbols, sneaking a last glance at the clock.  
 _1 second_  
She collapsed to her knees, exhaustion filling her body as a bright blinding light filled the clearing.  
She could vaguely hear Freed's voice coming through the phone however, she squinted at the bright light, desperate to find out whether it had worked or not. She spotted the others also looking towards the light as the light grew impossibly brighter and a loud crash filled the air...


	10. 10 ▫ Arguments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of possibly changing updates for this to every other week as life has gotten hella hectic recently, I only have the weekends to do everything, obviously, I'm going to try and continue weekly updates but I'm not sure how long I can do it for

Y/n ducked down as she was temporarily blinded by the light, hoping to partially avoid any possible explosions. Covering her head with her arms, she could barely hear Freed's voice through the phone as the loud noise rang deafeningly loud.

The H/c girl struggled to see behind her to check if the rest of the team were okay and she could vaguely make out the shapes of them also crouching down to avoid the swirling wind that surrounded them.

Eventually, the wind began dying down and the loud noise quietened. The light began to dim and Y/n risked a glance upwards towards where the runes had previously been.

Her eyes widened upon seeing the body still there and looking intact, quickly scrambling to her feet. Without thinking, she ended the call with Freed, having not heard his previous concern and rushed over to the body, followed closely by the rest of the team.

"What was that?" Lucy asked uncertainly

"I have absolutely no idea...But it looks like it's over now," Y/n explained and Erza moved to check the person's pulse, a frown forming on her face

"He's dead," She spoke solemnly and the rest of the group's faces fell. "We should call the police, just to be sure," She turned back towards the group "Natsu, are you sure this is the guy we were supposed to find?"

The dragon slayer nodded slowly and the group began working, contacting the police along with the family who sent in the request. From that moment, the small clearing was full of noise from various police officers collecting evidence and conducting interviews.

The family of the victim had arrived soon after, breaking down upon hearing the news and they were soon spoken to by some of the officers who helped to comfort them. They thanked the Fairy Tail wizards in between pained sobs and the group took their leave, returning to the train station in the centre of the town in relative silence.

"Did you get any pictures of the other runes which you didn't know?" Erza asked Y/n as they sat on the train.

"No...I just hope that it wasn't anything too important....same with the ones this morning," The H/c girl replied

"We can only hope for that I guess," Lucy added, "What did Freed say about it?"  
Y/n felt her blood run cold at the question  
"I uh...I accidentally hung up on him...before I explained,"  
The train carriage went silent for a moment before Lucy tried to reassure the H/c girl that the rune mage would understand.  
They fell into comfortable conversation as the train headed back to Magnolia, the sky gradually darkening as they went. It was almost pitch black when they reached the station and upon checking the time, they discovered it was pretty late, however, they made their way to the guild to report back to Mira about how the mission went.  
They entered the guild which was unsurprisingly still fairly busy and headed over to the bar where Mira stood, however, Y/n felt a hand grip her wrist as she moved to follow after the others.  
Upon turning around, she spotted Freed who had a grimace on his face.  
"Freed! I..uh..." The H/c girl stuttered slightly, glancing around her to try and catch Lucy's attention.  
"What happened?" The rune mages voice was stern and left no room for arguments as Y/n subtly tried to free her wrist from his hold.  
"It wasn't anything important," She mumbled and Freed unknowingly tightened his grip on her arm.  
"Stop lying Y/n, I'm not stupid," His voice was low and almost threatening and Y/n looked away from him

"What do you want me to say, Freed? You were right, it was a bad idea for me to go, are you happy now?" The H/c girl sighed and pulled her arm away, turning her back to the rune mage whilst he stood in shocked silence.

By the time he snapped out of his trance, Y/n was already speaking to Lucy, her voice quiet and probably talking about what had just happened.

What _had_  just happened?

Freed asked himself this as his hand reached up to rub his temples where a headache had started to form and he moved to sit back at the table where the rest of his team sat.

"What on earth just happened?" Evergreen asked when the rune mage returned "What did you say to her? She looked ready to punch you in the face,"

The rune mage sighed, his gaze coming to rest on the H/c girl who's back was to him.

"I messed up," Freed admitted "But I don't think she really wants to talk to me now so I don't know how to fix it,"

Evergreen placed a hand on his shoulder, offering to go and talk to her however, at that moment, Laxus showed up.

"Freed, gramps wants to see you," The lightning dragon slayer stated, taking a seat opposite the rune mage before adding "It's about some solo mission or something,"

With another small sigh, Freed stood up and left the table, heading towards Makarov's office.

Lucy frowned as Y/n explained what had happened and the H/c girl sighed again for what seemed like the hundreth time since she approached the celestial wizard.

"I'm sure he was just worried about you," Lucy tried to console however Y/n rolled her eyes.

"I know it's just annoying. I can take care of myself, I don't need a babysitter. In case he hasn't realised, I have lived alone most of my life,"

Lucy placed her hands on Y/n's shoulders as a form of comfort.

"My only suggestion is that you calm down before you even try and talk to Freed," The celestial mage smiled.

"Yeah, yeah I know," Y/n mumbled with a small pout, "I think I might go for a walk, if Freed asks, tell him I'll meet him back at his later,"  
Lucy gave her a concerned glance and nodded before adding  
"Stay safe," to which Y/n nodded before exiting the guild.

The rune mage entered Makarovs office after knocking and hearing a reply of

"Come in,"

He entered the room and saw the short man sat behind the desk with a request in front of him.

"Sorry to have to ask this of you Freed but Lillith town has been taken by the dark guild. They've set up runes again, luckily this time they're just normal runes, but they are too complicated for anyone in the town to undo. I was hoping you could go and help out,"

"Of course master," Freed responded immediately before he remembered something important "What about Y/n?"

"Hm, what about her?" Makarov asked "I'm sure she could stay with someone else for a couple of days if it's a problem,"

"Ah, no it's not that...I just..." Freed stumbled over his words, unsure of what to say "Nevermind. I'll set off as soon as I can," He changed the topic however he was caught off guard as Makarov asked

"Is everything alright Freed? You've been on edge recently,"

"Yes, everything is fine, you shouldn't worry about it master," The rune mage responded, hoping his uncertainty didn't show in his voice. With everything that had happened with Y/n, he had been a bit on edge however, it was nothing that anyone else needed to worry about and so, he decided to take his leave. "I'll get going now, I can pack now and get the last train today, I should get there early tomorrow morning,"

"Take this," Makarov handed him the job request which contained all the details ad Freed gave a small nod before leaving. As he exited the room, his thoughts drifted immediately to Y/n. She was mad at him, that much was clear but would she really be okay on her own? He shook his head immediately after thinking this, of course she could look after herself, he had been stupid to think otherwise. With a sigh, he headed back over to Evergreen, Bixslow and Laxus, explaining that he was going on a job before he approached team Natsu to find out where Y/n was. Upon hearing that she had left, he tried to stop the sigh that threatened to escape. He gave Lucy a small nod and left the guild, heading home to collect a few things he may need and wait for Y/n.

Y/n walked around the outskirts of Magnolia, her mind filled with other thoughts. She hadn't had much time to explore the town and part of her was glad that she was now. The forests that surrounded magnolia were peaceful and helped her anger to dissipate slightly. Her thumb absentmindedly ran over the runes on her wrist, noticing how the symbols were slightly raised and a small frown formed on her face. Now that she had calmed down slightly, she realised that Freed had every right to be worried and she felt guilt slowly settle in her stomach however it was still accompanied by slight anger

Her thoughts were interrupted however when she realised how far she had wandered. The part of her which was still angry tried to convince her that she should carry on walking however it was outweighed by the part which said she needed to head back. She listened to the sensible part and began retracing her route, returning to Fairy Tail and heading back to Freed's house.  
She paused outside the house, unsure of how to talk to Freed again, she knew she had overreacted however her annoyance was still clear in her mind. Deciding to just go with the flow, she opened the door, entering the house and removing her shoes. A bag rested by the door and she grew concerned upon seeing it, making her way through the house to find Freed in the kitchen.  
"Y/n, you're back," The rune mage sounded unsure of himself too as he spoke and Y/n still couldn't think of how to respond to him. "Master has asked me to go on a mission unfortunately so I'm going to have to leave soon," He informed and Y/n felt her heart lurch. Was this partly her fault? Did Freed just not want to be around her?  
Her thoughts were cut off before she could think of how to respond and Freed spoke quietly.  
"I know you're annoyed at me but at least eat something before I go, it's the least I can do,"  
The H/c girl nodded slightly, the shock of the current situation hindering her ability to think of how to respond. Even though she knew she should respond, she couldn't seem to make herself answer, doing nothing to decrease her annoyance.  
They ate In silence, the awkward atmosphere hanging heavily over their heads. After they finished eating, Y/n helped to clean up, the silence continuing up until Freed was getting ready to leave.  
She still hadn't thought of what to say and she was running out of time, the thought doing nothing to help her think.  
Freed entered the room once more, speaking quietly again  
"Stay in my bed whilst I'm away, don't bother messing around with the fold out bed," He glanced up at her and saw the H/c girl still halting slightly at the ground, sighing before adding "I'm going to go now, I'm not sure how long it will take but I should be back within four days at most,"  
Y/n simply nodded, so faintly that Freed most likely didn't notice as he left the room, pulling on his shoes and his coat and grabbing his stuff before leaving with one last glance towards the room Y/n was stood in.


	11. 11 ▫ Freedom And New Danger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The app I use to edit the photos for the notes isn't working properly and I'm trying to work on a future chapter but I need the app to work :((((((
> 
> Gonna have to do this the hard way instead :((((

The train swayed and rocked on the tracks as it headed towards the station nearest to it's intended destination. He had been informed that the train had to stop completely at the station before the next town due to the dark guilds runes and so, he would have to walk for around two hours before he would reach the town. He had been on edge throughout the entire journey, worrying about Y/n and had felt a strange dip in his magic at one point which did nothing to ease his nerves. His nervousness had prevented him from sleeping through most of the ride and he was currently one of the only passengers on the train as it headed towards its last stop. The sun had started to rise and upon checking the time, he found that it was almost six in the morning. The screech of the breaks made him wince from the sound and he moved to exit the train, feeling another dip in his magic which was strong enough to make his head feel slightly fuzzy with the intensity.

_What on earth was happening?_

The rune mage tried to ignore it and got off the train, taking out a map which he had brought and starting to walk in the direction of the town. The sun had risen in the sky however, it was still early, and so, he began walking, hoping that he could get to the town and undo the runes throughout the day. If he was lucky, he would be able to remove the runes in just one day, that way he could stay the night in a hotel and get the train home the next day. He still didn't like the idea of leaving Y/n alone however there wasn't a lot he could do about it now.

The air grew slightly colder the longer he walked, however, it wasn't unbearable and so he persevered and hoped that there wouldn't be members of the dark guild waiting for him so that they could attack. He hadn't gotten much sleep at all the previous night, drifting in and out of sleep for around 3 hours of the 7-hour train ride, however, he tried his best to remain on guard, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword just in case.

He grew closer and closer to the town and began quickening his pace once the town was in sight, fearing the worst as he approached.

He could see the purple glow around the town and could see a couple of the runes from the distance he was at however, he couldn't start rewriting it until he was much closer.

Another dip in his magic power made him pause for a moment before continuing and trying to ignore the feeling of dread that settled in his chest along with the dip. Whatever was causing this would have to wait, he had a mission to complete, he could worry about Y/n later.

And so, he continued until he eventually reached a large wall of familiar runes glowing a dark purple, preparing himself for the long day that was surely ahead of him.

 

 

 

Y/n awoke in an unfamiliar bed, the sunlight streaming in through a small sliver in the curtains. She found herself drifting off again, after a night of interrupted sleep surrounded by a comforting scent that she couldn't seem to place no matter how hard she tried. Her awareness grew and her mind managed to realise that she was in Freed's bed  
Confusion formed in her mind as she tried to figure out why she was here before realisation dawned upon her. Freed was gone. He was on a solo mission. And they had argued just beforehand.  
Her hand came to rub at her eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them as she dragged herself out of bed. She can't exactly sit and wallow in self-pity all day. After dressing, she moved to the kitchen, preparing something simple to eat and cleaning up afterwards before leaving the house and heading to the guild. Something felt off as she walked, almost as if she was being followed however, every time she turned around, she could not see anyone. Speeding up her pace, she continued on her way to the guild, trying to ignore the bad feeling settling in her stomach. Luckily, she reached the guild quickly, immediately spotting Evergreen and Bixslow sat at a table however, Laxus was nowhere to be found.  
She approached the two nervously, unsure whether they would be mad at her for being unfair to Freed yesterday, however, as Evergreen spotted her, she waved her over, gesturing for her to join them.  
She did so and Evergreen immediately asked  
"Is everything okay? I heard about you and Freed yesterday, are you alright staying without him though?"  
The H/c girl nodded with a small sigh and replied.  
"Yeah...I shouldn't have gotten so annoyed at him..."  
"It's okay baby, Freed will forgive you, he's not the sort to hold a grudge," Bixslow added and the H/c girl nodded before a long yawn cut her off.  
"Are you tired?" Evergreen asked and the H/c girl nodded  
"Didn't sleep too well last night, but I'll be okay," she responded  
"You should sleep for a bit," Evergreen suggested and the H/c girl nodded, resting her head on top of her arms on the table.

"I can try," Y/n spoke quietly, her eyes closing slightly.

 

She wasn't sure how long passed before she slipped into sleep but she was sure that whatever this dream was, it couldn't be any good.

_For once it wasn't dark, but the brightness somehow made it look even eerier than usual. It seemed almost hospital like. The walls were plain white, the floor, white tile, and rows upon rows of lights running across the length of the room. There was a figure standing in one corner of the room however if seemed incredibly far away and as Y/n began running, she didn't seem to get any closer. She called out for the person however it did nothing, and so she carried on running, hoping to finally get somewhere only, it never happened. Giving up seemed to be the only option and so, she collapsed to her knees, almost immediately feeling a gust of wind rush past her before hands ran through her hair._  
"Y/n, oh my pretty Y/n. Why did you run? You should have always known that I would find you. I will get you back, my precious Y/n," the hands were now holding her shoulders, the voice close enough to her ear for her to feel breath brushing against her ear.  
"Oh? And look who we have here," the voice spoke and Y/n's eyes opened against her will.  
Fingers grasped her face and turned her head to see what it was talking about, causing pure fear to well in her chest.  
The long pale fingers of her father were wrapped in long green hair and she had to force herself to check whether it was true. Horror was the only thing she could feel as she saw Freed's face, pale and deathly.  
A scream escaped her mouth and she launched herself at the man. Pure fury filled her veins, she didn't care what happened, she just had to get revenge. How could this happen? How did he find her? How did he find out about Freed? How...?

The dream began fading into nothingness as she felt a hand on her shoulder shaking her slightly, a voice calling her name.  
"...Y/n...wake up..Y/n..."  
She registered it as Evergreens voice and snapped awake with a gasp, desperately trying to catch her breath.  
"Whoah, what happened? Are you alright?" The brunette asked once she realised Y/n was fully awake.  
"N..nothing...nothing, just another stupid nightmare..." The H/c girl mumbled and shook her head before glancing around her. "What time is it?" She added  
"Almost eight o clock, you've been asleep all day, we didn't want to wake you but you were shouting and seemed distressed," Evergreen asked and Y/n looked away.  
"I...I'm sorry...I think I should be going home..." The H/c girl spoke and moved to stand up. A hand on her wrist stopped her temporarily.  
"Be careful baby, Freed would never forgive us if anything happened to you," Bixslow spoke before Evergreen added  
"We can go with you if you'd like, to make sure you're safe,"  
The H/c girl shook her head and gave a small smile as she responded.  
"I think I need a moment alone, I'll be safe I promise,"  
The two agreed reluctantly and Y/n headed for the exit, feeling her hands shaking slightly from the adrenaline caused by her nightmare.  
It was just a dream.  
She was going to be fine.  
Nothing was going to happen.  
She struggled to believe this herself however, she had to try as she started walking.

 

 

Freed had reached the town at around nine o clock. He could see through the wall and saw the utter chaos that was going on inside the town. There seemed to be a large group of people in what looked like the town centre and there were children running around scared, hiding anywhere they could, parents crying and screaming that they had lost their child, it even looked like a couple of buildings were on fire. He took out his sword before spotting a small child staring back at him, their eyes filled with obvious fear.

"I'm going to help you, okay. I promise, I'm not from that dark guild," He tried to reassure, kneeling down slightly to be at the same height as the child "I'm from a guild called Fairy Tail," He showed the small child his guild mark before standing up again and lifting his sword to begin undoing the runes.

It was a time and energy consuming task as his eyes scanned the text and he started writing, the runes draining his magic power surprisingly fast however he carried on writing, determined to undo the runes as quickly as possible.

As he worked, a small crowd gathered on the other side of the rune wall, waiting in tense silence as he slowly but surely. He tried to work as fast as he could, however, an hour into working on the runes, he was only a quarter of the way through

He forced himself to stay on guard, glancing around himself at all times to ensure that there wasn't anyone waiting to attack, feeling like the task was too easy.

Hours passed and he finally managed to undo the runes, he felt exhaustion wash over him like a wave. It had taken so much more magic power than usual, presumably due to the size of the town and the time taken to undo the runes and he was feeling the effects of it immediately after.

The small crowd which had gathered rushed forwards to thank him and he brushed off the thanks, glancing around to ensure that there was no one injured nearby.

Luckily, one of the members of the group seemed to notice his exhaustion and offered to show him to a hotel near the centre of town. He complied, thanking them for their kindness before following after them, seeing many people rushing in the opposite direction to see whether it was true that they were free.  
They reached a small local hotel and the stranger led him inside, explaining to the receptionist that he had been the one to remove the runes around the town, to which the receptionist did not hesitate to offer him a room, ignoring his protests when they said he didn't have to pay for it. He was given a key with a tag on it and the receptionist gave instructions about how to get there before he walked up the stairs to the first floor, finding the right room and unlocking the door.  
Just as he was about to collapse in bed after removing his shoes, sword and coat, he felt another dip in his magic, this one becoming painful with how little power he had left after removing the enchantments around the town.  
"Y/n...what's going on..?" He mumbled to himself before falling back against the bed, slipping into a deep sleep almost immediately.

 

 

The walk back to Freed's house seemed eerier that night and Y/n felt as if a pair of eyes followed her every move, however, she brushed it off as her imagination, unknowingly increasing her speed.

Her unease grew the closer she got to the house however, she soon reached the front door, rushing inside and practically slamming the door behind her. She let out a breath that she was unaware she had been holding as she leaned against the door, trying to calm her racing heartbeat.

When she felt like she had more control of her breathing and rapid heart rate, she stood up straight, turning to look out of the peephole on the door and seeing nothing but the empty street. This reassured her and she moved to go and get ready for bed however, as she began washing her face, she heard a loud knock on the door. She quickly rinsed her face and grabbed a towel, drying her face as she walked to the front door. She figured that it would most likely be someone from the guild, most likely Evergreen or Lucy maybe and so, she opened the door without thinking, the towel still covering her face.

"Hm?" She asked, finishing drying her face off, finally coming face to face with the person outside.

Her eyes widened as a smirk was directed her way before a large hand reached forwards. She stumbled backwards, tripping over her own feet as the man's smirk only grew wider.

"What a foolish man he is, leaving you all alone, it's almost too easy," the voice sent shivers down Y/n's spine and she scrambled to grab her daggers.

The man's smirk grew even more upon seeing this and Y/n felt fear rushing through her veins.

"Oh? You want to fight? Very well then...."

Y/n felt frozen with fear as she stared back at the man outside who was approaching the door open door slowly from where he had been blown back earlier. She clenched the silver handles of her daggers and scrambled to stand up again, getting into a fighting stance as the man approached once more. He reached the open doorway and held his hand out, touching the rune wall with his palm.  
"Runes? Oh how smart," He teased before pulling his first back and slamming it into the wall of purple text, sending out sparks of bright light at the impact and a strong gust of wind which almost knocked Y/n off her feet.  
"Damn, that rune mage is stronger than he looks," The man mumbled and Y/n glared at him.  
"Of course he is, he's a member of fairy tail!" the H/c girl growled, making the man let out a mocking laugh.  
"Hm? Fairy tail? Don't tell me you're a part of that good for nothing guild too,"  
Y/n's expression darkened at this comment and she stepped forwards, preparing to attack. If she left the house, she would no longer be protected however, she had no other choice, there was no other way for her to defeat this guy.  
She contemplated her choices for a moment before making her decision. The guy didn't look like he would leave unless he was defeated. He smirked as he saw her move forward to attack, sending his own attack before she could get closer.  
"I'll just have to break through these runes of yours then," He spoke, firing an attack directly at the purple wall of text.  
Y/n cried out as she was sent back into the wall behind her, feeling an ache settling in her back already from the force of it.  
"What do you want anyway?" The H/c girl exclaimed, pulling herself up once more.  
"Hehehe, isn't it obvious?" The man smirked and Y/n felt bile rising in her throat.  
"Your little bodyguard leaving town for a while gave us the perfect opportunity to attack. Unfortunately, you've ruined it, and now I'm angry," His voice grew deeper as he spoke and the H/c girl shrunk back in fear.  
She wasn't sure whether her attacks would fire back at her due to the runes however, she was willing to try and so, she pulled her hands back, a large ball of black mist forming between her hands.  
"You really think that's a good idea?" The man smirked and Y/n let out a growl.  
"Black magic; shadow ball!" She shouted, launching the attack towards the man. She held her breath as the ball hit the rune wall, throwing them both back as a blinding light filled the room. She felt her head hit something, presumably the wall and her vision faded in and out of focus. She squinted and tried to focus her eyes, vaguely making out the outline of the man scrambling up and running away however, the ache in her skull stopped any feelings of relief.  
The door slowly swung closed and the H/c girl had the passing thought to get up and lock it however as she tried to move, she felt tingling in her limbs as black spots danced across her vision. Stumbling back once more, she leaned against the wall, trying to blink away the black spots however, she gradually felt the world get darker and darker around her, he consciousness slowly fading away...


	12. 12▫️The Return Home

Morning came around quickly and the sun shone through the thin curtains, illuminating the rune mages face who tossed and turned in his sleep. He had been restless the entire night, a niggling feeling at the back of his mind that something was wrong keeping him awake. Upon eventually falling asleep, he was met with nightmares and interrupted sleep the entire night. And so, when the sun awoke him early in the morning, he decided to stop fighting it and dragged himself out of bed. After cleaning himself up, he decided to check out of the hotel and set off home as soon as possible and so, he made his way back down to the reception, brushing off the rushed thanks from the person at the front desk and starting the long walk back to the next town.

It was still fairly early when he reached the train station, around midday and his tiredness had done nothing but increase tenfold however, he got on the train without any issue and let the rocking of the train carriage lull him to sleep for a while.

He was lucky to wake up before the train pulled into the station in Magnolia later that day, having fallen into a deep sleep which remained uninterrupted even through the movements of the train. Stretching his arms above his head, he felt his shoulder pop as he stood up, collecting his belongings before stepping off the train, breathing in the fresh air.  
"I should probably head home, whatever happened last night, I'm sure Y/n was involved," he spoke quietly to himself and began walking in the direction of his house, feeling his unease grow the closer he got to the building.

His magic power seemed to become uncontrolled as he walked and he found himself quickening his pace, breaking out into a run soon after. The sick feeling that bubbled in his stomach when he saw the front door made him dizzy. Large holes in the ground outside the door where someone had clearly landed. Hard. The runes around the house seemed to have been weakened slightly and as he moved to open the door, avoiding the destroyed ground, the door swung open easily, completely unlocked.  
He rushed inside and his eyes widened, heart almost stopping at the sight. Y/n was slumped against the wall opposite the door, her head lolled forwards and the back of her head seemingly bleeding and bruised. She didn't move when he called her name which did nothing to help his fears and he found himself dropping to his knees in front of her, avoiding the two daggers which had been dropped haphazardly on the dloor.  
He quickly glanced over her for any other injuries and checked her pulse before rushing into the bathroom to grab the first aid kit.  
When he returned, he soaked some cotton in antiseptic and began gently wiping the dried blood from the back on Y/n's head, getting a better look at the injury before dressing it.  
Luckily, the wound didn't seem too deep however, a dark swelling bruise had formed which concerned him. After a quick debate with himself, he decided that it would be best to move the H/c girl from the hallway and so, he gently manouvered her so that he could pick her up, carrying her limp body through the house and moving her to lay on his bed.  
She was still unresponsive as Freed sat next to her and he gently brushed some H/c hair away from her face.  
Some time passed of him simply sitting beside her and watching, waiting for her to wake up before he decided to start cooking some food in case she did wake up. He found his worry start to disappear as he moved around the kitchen, preparing something that could be easily reheated later on. Exhaustion began catching up with him as he was clearing away the dishes he had used whilst cooking, memories of their fight the other day surfacing even when he tried to force them back down. If he was lucky, the H/c girl wouldnt bring it up and they could ignore that it had ever happened. With this thought, he filled a glass with water and grabbed some painkillers, making his way back to where Y/n was still unconscious.

Opening the door as silently as possible, he entered the room and went to place the glass and pills down on the bedside table, hearing Y/n's breathing much heavier than usual. He turned to look at the H/c girl, seeing her forehead furrowed and her hands clenching into fists as she turned restlessly. A quiet mumble came out of her mouth and he had to focus intently to catch what was said.  
"No....stop...."  
He frowned and began gently shaking Y/n's shoulder trying to wake the H/c girl. After a couple of minutes, she shot up from where she lay, her head almost colliding with Freed's as she breathed heavily in panic. Her eyes darted around the room until they landed on the rune mage, her racing heart calming slightly when she saw him.  
"Are you alright?" Freed asked, his hands still resting upon Y/n's shoulders.  
She nodded quickly, almost trying to convince herself as well as him.  
"Yeah...yeah...just a stupid nightmare..." She spoke quietly, her heart still pounding in her chest, calming slowly as she controlled her breathing

"How long have I been unconscious?" She asked, her eyes wide and the rune mage moved to sit on the other side of the bed.

"You tell me. When I got back earlier, you were unconscious." He explained before standing again "I'll get you something to eat, you should take the painkillers, they should help,"  
Y/n nodded absentmindedly and sat up further, taking the glass of water and the pills and waiting for Freed to return after taking them.

The rune mage entered the room a short while later with a steaming bowl of hotpot with a spoon, handing it to the H/c girl who began eating. Freed returned to the other side of the bed, taking a seat again as silence filled the room. It was broken a moment later when he asked 

"What happened whilst I was gone though? Did someone attack you?"

The H/c girl appeared to be deep in thought before she answered.

"Yeah, when I got back here, someone knocked on the door...I thought it would be someone from the guild but it was some man I've never seen before, he tried to attack but the runes stopped him. Whenever he hit them, there was a sort of strong wind, and it happened when I attacked too, I must have hit my head then..."

"Do you remember what he looked like? We could report it the and see if anyone in Magnolia sees them," The rune mage suggested but Y/n shook her head.

"I don't remember much detail....how are you though? You look exhausted..."

Freed shook his head and responded with a small smile.  
"I'm fine, don't worry about me,"

The H/c girl gave him a small glare and reached out to grasp his wrist, trying to pull him to lie down beside her.  
"You should sleep..."  
Freed gave her an annoyed glance and pulled his arm away, shaking his head and moving to stand up.  
"You should worry about yourself Y/n, I'll be fine,"  
He didn't get far before Y/n's hand wrapped around his wrist once more, tighter this time as she pulled him back more insistently.  
"You're not fine, I can see how exhausted you are, just sleep for a while? Please? It's getting late anyway..."  
The rune mage appeared to be conflicted as he looked back at the H/c girl before he gave in, removing Y/n's hand from his wrist again and explaining  
"I'll go and get changed first,"  
With that, he left the room, reappearing a few minutes later changed out of his usual attire.  
Y/n's eyes followed him as he settled on the other side of the bed, looking towards her.

Laying this close to the H/c girl, he remembered how terrified she had been when they had first met her and he remembered that she had lived alone for most of her life. He also realised how little he really knew about her, why had she lived alone? Why was she so afraid?  
A small cough snapped him out of his thoughts and he realised that he had been staring at the H/c girl who giggled when he looked away again.  
"You must be tired, you never let yourself get lost in thought," She commented.  
"I guess my magic power was drained more than I thought," The rune mage admitted, his eyes feeling heavy.  
"That man attacking your runes probably didn't help..." Y/n added which the rune mage agreed with.  
"That explains what I was feeling,"  
A yawn escaped the H/c girls mouth and Freed gave a small smirk as he commented  
"Who's tired now?"  
Y/n playfully stuck her tongue out at him, her eyes slipping closed as she spoke  
"I guess I am kind of tired,"  
Silence settled in the air and they both found themselves beginning to slip into sleep. Just before sleep overtook him, Freed heard Y/n's voice speaking quietly again.  
"Goodnight Freed..."  
A small smile slipped into his face and his hand moved to cover the H/c girls   
"Goodnight Y/n,"


	13. 13 ▫ All Is Forgiven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: Gonna be honest, I didn't write like anything last week....Now I'm a bit behind with this story but uhhhhhh oh well....I'm hoping to finish this over the summer holidays maybe? I'm not sure how long it will be yet, all I know is I've planned up to chapter 21 which should be about halfway through? I have no idea. I'll shut up now though, I'll just say it'll end when it ends :))))))  
> P.S. This chapter might be a bit boring but I apologise, there will be a lot more excitement in future chapters I promise

Freed awoke the next morning, confusion filling his head as he glanced around the room, his eyes landing on the H/c girl who was thrashing around next to him, her face scrunched up in what he presumed was fear. 

He pushed his confusion to the side and gently shook the H/c girl's shoulder trying to wake her. It worked and he had to move out of the way quickly to avoid being headbutted as Y/n sat bolt upright, her eyes wide and her breathing heavy.

She sat for a moment before she quickly looked around the room, her eyes locking on Freed.

"Y...You're alive...Thank God...." She breathed out, letting out a sigh and resting her head on her hand.

"Is everything okay?" The rune mage asked and Y/n nodded her head with a forced fake smile.

"Yeah! Everything's fine.....it was just a stupid nightmare..."

"Y/n..." Freed mumbled before Y/n spoke again.

"I'm sorry about getting angry at you the other day....you were just worried about me...but I got annoyed at you...I'm sorry,"

The rune mage looked surprised before his expression changed to one of sympathy.

"It's alright Y/n, it's all in the past," 

The H/c girl shook her head 

"It's not though...I should have told you about the notes...And I should have told you what happened on the mission..."

"Y/n, I was in the wrong as well, I shouldn't have assumed that you can't look after yourself. Honestly though, everything is fine, it's in the past now. What did happen on that mission though? Did you manage to undo those runes?" Freed asked cautiously.

Y/n nodded, avoiding eye contact with him.

"I...on the train...Someone was following us, Erza and Gray stopped him though...Then when we woke up there was writing on the walls...like in the notes but it disappeared before we could take any pictures or anything....there was also runes on my wrists but they were normal runes...I think it was some sort of protection spell but I didn't really have time to worry about it....when we found the person we were supposed to look for, there were runes around him and more of the weird symbols...I tried to rewrite the runes but I got it wrong and a timer appeared....and every time I got it wrong the time left decreased so I called you....then there was some explosion or something and...he was dead..." The H/c girl explained, her hands absentmindedly clenching into fists.

She felt the rune mages hand on her wrist and glanced at him, seeing concern written on his face as he turned her wrist around to see the raised runes circling it. His finger ran over the letters and they glowed purple, his eyes scanning over the symbols and deciphering what they said.

"Hmm," He checked the ones on her other wrist as well, seeing that they were the same "I think you're right, it says 'No harm shall come to those who these runes are cast upon' It's a fairly simple spell but it's quick which I assume whoever cast it intended. Do you know when they appeared?" The rune mage asked  
Y/n seemed to think for a moment before answering.  
"It must have been overnight...I'm guessing the runes on the wall were written then too...it just doesn't make sense...whoever wrote the runes on the wall...did they do this as well...if so why? I don't understand..."

"There's nothing we can really do at the moment...Unless we know who cast it, we can't ask...We'll just have to hope it's nothing," The rune mage glanced at the clock on the bedside table before continuing "We could start looking for those books you found if you want?"  
  
Y/n nodded in response, her eyes still trained on the letters circling her wrist. Freed stood up and told the H/c girl that he would start making breakfast and she followed after him, feeling her head pounding as she stood up. She stopped in the doorway, grabbing hold of the wall as a wave of dizziness washed over her. The rune mage noticed her presence disappear from behind him and rushed back to where she stood, concern filling his gaze as he took her arm to help steady her.

"Ah...you've probably got a pretty bad concussion...I forgot to mention. You should probably take it easy for the next few days,"

The H/c girl nodded and managed to steady herself again, releasing the wall from her grasp and reassuring Freed she was alright, following him through to the kitchen.

"Sit down, I don't want you collapsing," Freed spoke and Y/n didn't have the effort to argue.

The rune mage began moving around the kitchen, making something for them to eat.

"So who's this book that you're looking for by? I might have heard of them before," Freed asked

"Someone called G.R. Castelle, the book is just called runes but it's written in the symbols from the notes,"  The H/c girl responded, "There are apparently only a few copies in existence so I'm not sure if we'll be able to find it..."

"Hmm...I can't recall ever hearing of them...G.R. Castelle..." The rune mages forehead furrowed in concentration "No, I don't think I know of them. Hm, only a few copies in existence though, that seems a little bit strange," 

As Freed finished cooking, Y/n spoke quietly.

"You don't have to help me you know, I'm still not one hundred per cent sure that this book can help....it might be a waste of time...."

The rune mage simply shook his head as he placed two plates of food on the table, sitting down opposite Y/n.

"It's the only lead we've got, there's no other way of finding out what those notes say, what if they're warning of something dangerous? What if they're threats? We don't know. Besides, it will be quicker with more people looking,"

Y/n nodded silently and the two of them finished eating before cleaning up and getting ready to leave. As they left the house, Y/n's eyes widened at the sight of the mess outside from the other night.

"Wow...He must've been sent back with more force than I was...." The H/c girl spoke, following after the rune mage as he led the way to the first library.

"You're lucky you weren't more injured," Freed commented, grimacing at the memory of walking in to see Y/n slumped against the wall unconscious.

The H/c girl agreed and they continued walking in silence until they reached a large old looking building. The building was taller than the others that surrounded it and had ivy winding around the bricks, creating a web of intricate patterns. Freed pushed open one of the heavy wooden doors, gesturing for Y/n to enter before following her and pointing out the section they should be looking in.

They worked in silence, scanning the spines of the books and pulling out any of interest to flick through them, only to find that the book was in reality, fairly useless. This went on for the next few hours with minimal conversation between them, both mages focussed on finding the right book. It reached the point where the owner of the library had offered to help, revealing that she knew the book that they were looking for but that she didn't have it in the library.

The two thanked her before flopping down on two nearby chairs.

"Well, that was a complete waste of time..." Y/n sighed and the rune mage agreed.

"Maybe we should ask first when we get to the next one," Freed suggested, standing up from where he sat and suggesting they move onto the next library.

The next library looked more modern, with bricks which matched the surrounding houses and sleek glass doors. This time, they headed straight towards one of the librarians, a young looking male who was carrying an armful of books.

The librarian, unfortunately, wasn't sure if they had the book however they helped to point them in the right direction and so, their search began once more.

After going through all the books in the section on runes, Y/n let out a frustrated sigh.

"This is hopeless..." She grimaced, rubbing her temples.

"There's still a couple of libraries in Magnolia, I think we might have looked enough today though. We should head to the guild and maybe Levy will know where else we could look," Freed suggested and Y/n, too tired to argue, agreed, following Freed with disappointment filling her.

"We will find it, I promise you, I'm not going to give up until we do," The rune mage tried to reassure the H/c girl as they walked, however, it didn't seem to work.

Almost as soon as they reached the guild, Y/n left, heading towards the library and Freed knew better than to stop her, deciding to talk to her about it later instead as he walked over to the rest of the thunder legion.

  



	14. 14 ▫ Searching For Answers

Freed watched the H/c girl as she disappeared into the guild's library, sighing as he headed over to his team who sat around one of the tables, talking quietly.  
"Freed, you're finally here," Evergreen spoke and the rune mage sat down beside her.  
"Are you still going ahead with it?" Freed directed his question towards Laxus who nodded.  
"Of course, almost everything is set up, it would be a waste to scrap the whole plan now," The dragon slayer spoke in a quiet voice, to which his team nodded in agreement.  
"What about Y/n?" Evergreen asked, her voice filled with concern.  
"What about her?" Laxus asked, his voice showing no emotion.  
"If she gets hurt, who's going to finish the mission?" The fairy mage continued.  
"I'll write it so that she can't leave the guild as well," Freed reassured however Evergreen and Bixslow still looked unsure.  
"It will all be fine, you're all worrying too much," Laxus shook his head at his other two teammates "Why'd she just disappear like that anyway?  You two didn't fight again did you?"

Freed shook his head and shrugged.

"She's just frustrated that we couldn't find this book, It's the only lead we have about the notes she's been getting,"

The rest of the raijinshuu nodded and the conversation topic changed pretty quickly. Freed found himself drifting off in his thoughts slightly, trying his hardest to recall if he had ever seen any of the unknown runes. Upon remembering nothing, he focussed back into the conversation, something about Laxus' newest plan.

 

Y/n's hands came to rub her temples as she entered the library, her eyes scanning the room and spotting the section she had previously looked in before continuing around the room, a new aim in mind.

Her head pounded slightly with what would be the start of a headache and she spotted her target.  _Magic books._

The shelf was lined with countless hardback books, the spines decorated with golden details carved into the thick brown leather.

She pulled the first one off the shelf, coughing as she inhaled the dust cloud that flew up from the shelf. She flicked open the heavy front cover, reading the contents page and frowning slightly.

_1-11 - Books on the origins of magic_

_12-24 - Books on using basic magic_

_25-30 - Books on the theories of magic_

She sighed upon seeing no relevant topics listed, closing the book and replacing it on the shelf before moving onto the next one, repeating her previous actions and again finding nothing.

After four more books, her eyes widened upon finding something that may help her.

_125-134 - Books on the origins of letter magic_

Quickly, the H/c girl flicked through the old pages, finding the right page and letting her eyes roam over the text.

_Many books have been written about letter magic over the ages, one of the most remarkable ones is possible G.R._ _Castelle's_ _series on ancient rune magic and other word magic types. The first book written by_ _Castelle_ _is simply titled_ runes _and had only a couple of copies made due to the high potential of the magic being used for evil. The copies that were made were given to the rune mages who protected Magnolia many years ago when the dark guild, Shadow Blade attempted to attack. Ten rune mages were given copies of the book and they have either held onto them or passed them onto someone they believe is trustworthy. It is unknown whether the books are still with the original 10 rune mages and so for anyone trying to find the books, it could be a wild goose chase, however, the best places to start are the ancient libraries around_ _Fiore_ _where the rune mages lived. If this doesn't work, the town's archives may contain documents detailing who the mages were who were given the books. This would provide a name and where they lived at the time which could help, however, getting hold of the archives can be difficult-_

She stared at the wall opposite her in disbelief. This book had practically described where to find the book she needed, she could easily find them now. Shooting up from where she had sat down at some point, she thought to go and show Freed, however, on second thought, she replaced the book on the shelf, sneaking out of the library and staying out of sight as she left the guild. If she was fast, she could probably find the book by the end of the day, that way Freed wouldn't have to know she was looking for it.

A victorious smile made its way onto her face as she exited the guild, heading towards the town centre where the archives would likely be kept. She walked quickly, already knowing that what she was doing was quite irresponsible, however, Freed most likely would have stopped her if she had told him, and she was reaching the point of desperation wanting to know what the notes said.

The town centre housed a large building with stone bricks, some of which had various carvings in them from years ago. The large wooden doors were scuffed however, they still held the shine from the varnish painted on them years ago

Her hand reached out to push open the heavy doors, the smell of old books hitting her full force as she entered the old building. She headed towards the desk in the centre of the room and gained the attention of the receptionist who helped direct her in the right direction. She began making her way around the large building, ending up on the third floor where the receptionist had pointed out. Her E/c eyes began scanning the files on the shelves, reading the titles and looking for the right documents.  
Before long, she had looked through the majority of the files and had no luck in finding the right one. An old looking man with wiry white hair and a weathered cane walked past her, asking if there was any way he could help her with a small smile on his wrinkled face.  
"I'm looking for the documents that name the 10 rune mages who fought against the dark guild Shadow Blade, I've not been able to find it so far, do you happen to know where I might find it?" The H/c girl asked and the old man gave a wistful smile.  
"I think I may know what you're looking for, if you'll follow me," The man lead the way, leading Y/n back downstairs to the ground floor and then down another flight of stairs, leading them to the basement.  
"I'm going to guess you're looking for the book on ancient rune magic?" The H/c girl nodded and the old man smiled "You're the one Fairy Tail has recruited to fight against a dark guild if I'm right?"  
Again, Y/n nodded, staring I'm disbelief at the man.  
"You're well known around the town at the moment, it was big news when the dark guild took over, everyone's hoping it will be over soon,"  
A large door came into sight and the old man pushed it open, holding the wooden door open for the H/c girl to walk through. It lead into a dark tunnel and the man lifted a finger, a small line of fire coming out from his hands and lighting the candles which lined the walls.  
"Obviously there must be a reason you're looking for this book and I'm willing to help you if it will eventually lead to the town being freed, you see, my granddaughter was visiting when the news came about the guild, I've not heard from her since and it's getting harder to continue being hopeful,"  
"I'm terribly sorry, I promise I will find a way to remove those runes," The H/c girl sounded determined and the man smiled.  
They continued down the winding stone tunnel before reaching a large room with shelves lining every wall.  
"Wow...I had no idea there was this much information here..." Y/n stared wide-eyed as the man headed towards the left of the room, looking on one of the shelves for a moment before smiling with a victorious  
"Ah!"  
A large folder was pulled off the shelf and the man approached the table in the centre of the room, placing the file down and opening it to the contents page.  
His eyes scanned over the list of pages before finding what he needed, flicking through to that page and reading through the information.  
"Here we are," he spoke and pointed the H/c girl towards the bottom of the page.  
"A lot of them seem to live quite far away," Y/n commented before the man pointed out one name she hadn't noticed.  
"This one's not too far away, it's about a two-hour train ride," He suggested and Y/n nodded.  
"That's the closest one?"   
The man nodded and Y/n continued  
"Okay, I'll set off as soon as possible, I will get your granddaughter back safe, I promise,"   
The H/c girl quickly scribbled down the name and the address on a piece of paper before thanking the man and leaving the old building, making her way back to the guild and slipping inside without anyone noticing.


	15. 15 ▫ The Book

Y/n didn't mention to Freed about what she had found at the archives. She had already decided that she would go to the next town tomorrow, find the book and be back before Freed even knew she was gone. If Freed found out, he would no doubt try and stop her and so, she kept silent, the rune mage voicing his concern when the H/c girl was much quieter than usual.

His worry was brushed off with a small comment about her being tired and the subject was thankfully dropped and the two got ready for bed, neither of them knowing what the next day would bring.

Sunlight began streaming in through the slightly parted curtains and the H/c girl awoke, getting ready and starting to make something for the them to eat when Freed awoke.  
The rune mage emerged soon after and was surprised to see Y/n cooking who smirked slightly and joked lightly  
"What? You think you're the only one who can cook?"  
She received a shake of the head in response and Freed responded  
"I'm just surprised is all, you didn't have to do this,"  
"It's alright, I was up early anyway,"   
She finished cooking and they sat down to eat, Y/n voicing her plans for the day to cover up her real intentions.  
"I was thinking of walking around Magnolia for a bit today, I need time to think over everything and I've still not seen most of the town,"  
The rune mage looked up at her in surprise, the expression showing clearly on his face.  
"Alright, I can come with yo-"  
"No!" Y/n cut him off and Freed stared at her in surprise. "I mean, I'm just not used to being around people this much, I need to clear my head a bit alone,"

Freed looked at her unsurely and the H/c girl tried her best to give a reassuring smile.

"I promise I'll be back before it gets late," She tried to convince him, to which he reluctantly agreed.

"Promise me you'll be back before it gets dark, and that you'll be safe," The rune mage spoke, a stern look plastered on his face.

Y/n nodded and rolled her eyes at him, Freed's glare only growing.

"Okay, okay, I promise," The H/c girl responded, her voice filled with seriousness. Freed seemed satisfied with this response and the two of them finished eating before leaving the house, beginning to walk before going their separate ways.

Y/n walked slowly until she was out of sight of Freed or anyone else from the guild who happened to be lurking nearby the guild before speeding up her pace, using the faded memory from her mission with team Natsu to guide herself to the train station. She bought a return ticket to the next town and boarded the train, sitting down next to the window, staring out as she waited for the vehicle to start moving. Her mind wandered to what Freed would think if he knew where she was truly going however, she shook her head as if to rid herself of the thought, not wanting to dwell on the rune mages reaction, instead focussing on the task at hand.

She read over the address she had written down the previous day, memorising it as the train set off, rattling down the tracks towards where she would hopefully find the book she needed.

Freed entered the guild hall, an unsettling feeling building as he made his way over to Evergreen and Bixslow who sat at one of the tables to the side of the guild. They both looked confused as he approached and Evergreen asked

"No Y/n?"

The rune mage shook his head and explained

"She's gone to explore Magnolia, she wanted to be alone for a bit,"

His teammates nodded in understanding before changing the topic.

"Have you started setting up your runes yet?" Bixslow asked, a curious grin plastered on his face.

Freed shook his head.

"I've not had time yet, I'll get it done soon,"

"You've still got a week to sort it out, it will all be fine," Evergreen reassured, noticing Mirajane approaching their table.

"Freed," The white-haired mage spoke, handing him an envelope "This was left on the bar this morning,"

He took the envelope from her with a confused frown, opening it and pulling out a small torn piece of paper. His eyes widened upon seeing what was written on the scrap of paper and his teammates began questioning what was wrong.

 

 

"I need to find Y/n," He replied, ignoring the confused questions from his guildmates. As he stood up and headed towards the door to the guild, Evergreen followed and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from leaving and demanding

"Just tell us what's wrong," 

The rune mage paused and turned to the fairy mage who had now been joined by Bixslow and Mira.

"That note, it says 'It's too late, She's gone,' and it's written in a runic language, it seems too similar to the notes Y/n has been getting for it to be talking about anything else,"

"You think she might be in danger?" Mira asked 

"I can only assume so," The rune mage replied "I'm going to go and look for her,"

He turned to leave again but was stopped again.

"We're coming with you," Bixslow spoke and Freed agreed.

"I can see if some other teams will go out and look too if you'd like?" Mira offered, however, the rune mage declined, wanting to believe that they would find Y/n easily and she would be safe.

The three of them left the guild, Freed leading them in the direction that Y/n had gone earlier that day before trying to think of which way she might have gone.

 

The train pulled into the station almost two hours later and Y/n exited the vehicle, breathing in the fresh air and stretching her legs which had gone stiff a long time ago.  
After, she began walking, heading out of the train station and onto the streets, looking around for street signs to navigate her way towards the library she was heading for. It was still pretty early so Y/n figured she had some time to waste, deciding to walk slowly to the library.

Luckily, the library wasn't too far away from the train station and the H/c girl managed to find it fairly easily and now stood before the towering building.  
It was a modern looking building, with sleek windows covering almost the entire front wall and metal beams in between the panes of glass. She pushed open the large glass door and entered, heading straight over to the reception desk after a brief look around.  
A kind looking woman looked up from the desk as she approached and she gave a small smile, asking  
"Hello, I heard that the book called 'runes' by G.R. Castelle was here, would you be able to show me where it may be,"  
"It's not often people come looking for that book, you must be the first in maybe four years, of course, I can show you," The librarian replied with a small smile.  
She led the way, weaving in between rows of shelves before coming to a stop in front of a large shelf.  
The woman's eyes scanned over the spines of the books before smiling victoriously and pulling out an old, dusty hardback book.  
Y/n saw that it was indeed the same book she had seen a photo of and she recognised some of the symbols, taking the book when it was handed to her.  
"Thank you very much," Y/n spoke and the woman simply smiled.  
"I hope it helps,"  
With that, she left Y/n who quickly found a table to sit at, flicking open the book and looking through the contents page before starting to read.

Freed led the way around Magnolia, trying to think of anywhere that Y/n may have disappeared to with Bixslow and Evergreen following, both of them keeping an eye out for the H/c girl.  
"Surely she couldn't have gone too far," Evergreen spoke sounding confused  
"You would think so," Freed sighed "Why didn't she tell me where she was going?"  
"You think she's doing something stupid?" Bixslow asked  
Another sigh came from the rune mage.  
"I don't know,"   
The three continued searching, trying to remain optimistic as they walked around Magnolia.

Y/n found herself getting lost in the book, barely realising how late it had gotten. By the time she checked the clock hung on the wall opposite her, she had to rush in order to reach the train station in time.  
She collected her things and went to check out the book before rushing out of the library and down the slightly familiar streets.  
It was around a block away from the train station however that she felt something was off. She slowed down her pace and looked around her, spotting four tall figures emerging from two nearby side streets.  
"Where do you think you're going with that book?"  
The H/c girl backed away from the group, almost tripping over her feet as she gripped the book to her chest.  
"Leave me alone!" She yelled, trying to find an escape route. A dark chuckle was the only response she got.  
"I don't think we can do that now..."


	16. 16 ▫ Found It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late, I'm late I know! I've been working non-stop on a friends birthday present and lost track of time so I forgot to upload this! I apologise! But anyway, enjoy this chapter! :))))

A fist swung towards Y/n's jaw, catching her off guard as she stumbled backwards from the hit

"I said leave me alone!" As the H/c girl shouted, she sent an attack directly towards the group, the swirling cloud of darkness enveloping the street and obscuring her view. She took this opportunity to escape, running down the road which she knew led to the train station, however, the cloud cleared faster than she anticipated and the group were close behind her, having seen through her tactic.

She sent another quick attack without looking behind her, scared to see how close they really were. Upon hearing an angered grunt behind her, she tried to speed up even more, running so fast she almost tripped over her own feet. Unfortunately, one of the members of the group had managed to get in front of her somehow and the H/c girl had to swerve to the right, ducking down to avoid the man's hands that reached out to grab her. Losing her balance, she found herself falling to the floor, scrambling to stand up after grabbing the book she had dropped once more.

She only just managed to start running again before the man caught up and she now had no room for errors. They were right behind her, if she fell, it was over. They would take the book and probably kill her too.

The fear pushed adrenaline into her bloodstream and she continued going, seeing the last turn she would have to make before reaching the train station. As a last-ditch attempt to get rid of her pursuers, she sent another attack behind her, once again not stopping or turning around to see whether it hit or not.

As she reached the train station, she finally turned around just outside the entrance to the station, the group coming to a halt in front of her with wicked smirks on their faces.

"Finally decided to give in?" One of them asked, leaning close to her and filling her nose with the scent of rot and decay.

"Never. I just thought I'd warn you that there is security around the station. If you do anything, I will shout for help and get you arrested," Y/n warned, her voice low and threatening. A chorus of doubtful murmurs and worried glances came over the group and the H/c girl grinned victoriously. "Now how about you tell me what you want with this book? And who sent you, I know you're not working alone,"

This time panicked glances were exchanged between the group and Y/n prepared to attack just in case.

"Why do you need to know?" One of them, presumably the ringleader spoke.

"Just answer the question!" Y/n spoke, her voice raised as she lifted her fist, swirling black magic surrounding her hand. The one who spoke previously cowered back slightly.

"W...we heard that book was dangerous...we wanted to stop you in case you hurt anyone," Another member of the group spoke, to which the H/c girl scoffed.

"Bullshit," She growled, throwing an attack towards the group "Do not follow me. Or you'll regret it,"

She left them where they stood, entering the train station and heading towards the correct platform, waiting for her train whilst keeping a lookout t make sure she wasn't being followed. She'd considered forcing them to tell her their true aim however, she was already late, she would be lucky to get back to Magnolia before Freed became concerned now, however, there wasn't a lot she could do about it now as she boarded the train that pulled up, letting out a sigh as she sat down.

 

The train pulling into Magnolia filled her with anxiety  as she wondered whether she was too late and Freed had already noticed she had gone however, she tried to not focus on these thoughts, heading in the direction of the guild and thinking of a story she could use to explain her absence all day.

She knew something was wrong when she entered the guild, being met with silence and everyone's eyes on her. Walking slowly with an awkward smile, she made her way towards the bar where Mira was stood, concern written all over her face.

"Where on earth have you been? Freed and his team went out looking for you hours ago!" The white-haired girl sounded equally concerned and angry and Y/n felt guilt pool in her stomach.

"I'm sorry...I got a bit lost..." The H/c girl lied, holding the book closer to her chest.

"What's the book for?" Mira asked curiously, suspecting that there was something the H/c girl wasn't telling her.

"Ah...Uh, it's nothing important really, I just thought it might help with runes," Y/n replied before being interrupted by the guild's doors opening once more, revealing Freed, Evergreen and Bixslow.

Upon seeing Y/n stood at the bar, Freed's eyes widened before an unimpressed frown appeared on his face.

The three of them approached and Y/n  shrunk back slightly, feeling somewhat intimidated by the unimpressed expression on Freed's face.

"Where have you been? We looked everywhere for you, were you even in Magnolia?" Freed's voice was slightly raised and Y/n swallowed loudly, the tense atmosphere growing more and more uncomfortable.

"I was! I just got lost...and..."

"If you can't even be trusted not to get lost then take someone with you next time. What was so important you had to go today anyway?" Freed sounded annoyed and Y/n couldn't help but feel bad.

"I'm sorry...I just wanted to walk around a bit...then I ended up going to a library I walked past..."

The rune mage sighed and Y/n avoided his eyes, quietly saying

"I'm going to go to the library..."

She left before hearing anyone's replies, letting out a relieved sigh upon entering the library, comforted by the familiar surroundings and the smell of old books.

Approaching the small table in the middle, she placed the book down and sat down, flicking open the dusty old book and scanning through the contents page. After, she began reading, reading through the introduction and the basics of the ancient language, becoming immersed in the book and learning the new language.

 

 

 

 

Freed felt his anger slowly decreasing as he sat at the bar with Bixslow and Evergreen, talking with Mira.

"Something just seemed off, I'm not sure why," Mira spoke as the conversation turned to Y/n's disappearance that day "Do you think she specifically went out to look for that book?"

Freed, who had;t contributed much the conversation up until now, snapped his head up to look at Mira.

"That book...Do you know what it was?"

She shook her head regretfully and replied

"Maybe you should go and talk to her, things seem kind of tense between you two,"

The rune mage sighed but agreed, standing up and heading towards the library before disappearing from sight.

 

Y/n was sat at the table in the library and she didn't seem to notice him entering the room. He moved closer and could vaguely see that she was reading something rune related.

"Y/n?" He called, making the H/c girl jump in surprise.

"Yeah?" Her voice was quiet and she looked up at the rune mage.

"Just wondering what you're reading," The rune mage spoke, approaching the table and looking over the H/c girl's shoulder.

An unexpected grin made it's way onto Y/n's face, much to the confusion of Freed. All was explained when Y/n spoke.

"I found the book," 

She closed the book to show Freed the cover of the book, revealing runes matching the ones from the notes.

"Wha..? How?" Freed asked, his voice shocked. The H/c girl just gave a knowing smile.

"That's not important," 

Freed looked unconvinced but accepted it.

"That's great, so we can start working out what those notes mean soon,"

Y/n nodded before continuing.

"It might have to wait until tomorrow though," A long yawn cute her off "I've tired myself out,"

Freed nodded and held out a hand for the H/c girl to take.

"Let's go, we can start working things out tomorrow," 

Y/n nodded and took the offered hand, taking the book in her other hand as she followed Freed out of the room, the two mages heading back to his house.

 

 


	17. 17 ▫ Decoding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: I finally finished my friends birthday present and I now have time to write again! But oh my god, I'm so behind with this fic, if I didn't have this chapter pre-written I wouldn't be able to update this week! This weekend I need to try and catch up and quickly but I also have tonnes of tidying up to do! Ugh! Oh well, enjoy this chapter!  
> Also, this update is really early as I'm out today but maybe it will make up for last weeks late update!

The next day, Y/n and Freed arrived at the guild early, both of them heading straight to the library. Y/n held the book in her arms, the scraps of paper containing the notes haphazardly slotted inside the front cover.

Mira greeted them cheerfully which they responded to before entering the large room with books lining the walls. Y/n placed the book down on the table before heading over to one of the shelves, quickly looking over the titles before pulling one out.

"This is where I found it, I figured maybe it would class as a magic book and apparently it does. I went to the town's archive the other day," The H/c girl explained, to which Freed nodded.

"You brought the notes with you right?" The rune mage asked and Y/n nodded, flipping open the first page to reveal the flattened notes.

"So, from what I read the other day, there's a simple way of writing and a more complex way...I'm going to guess that these will be more complex because I've not spotted all the symbols used yet," The H/c girl explained, flipping the page open to the first few pages. "The start just explains where the language came from and how it started to develop but here," She found the right page "It starts getting interesting,"

 

 

 

Freed's eyes began running over the words on the page, nodding to himself every now and then.

"So some of these symbols are in the notes?" He asked for clarification and Y/n nodded.

"I've annotated some of them that I managed to get out of it,"

The rune mage continued reading and Y/n did the same, taking a seat next to Freed.

"Hmm, they seem to be more complex than we thought," Freed seemed to be thinking aloud and so Y/n didn't respond. 

They read in silence for a while, trying to gain an understanding of the language before trying to decode any notes however, they were interrupted by the door to the library opening.

Both mages heads turned towards the person entering, seeing Laxus standing in the doorway.

Freed looked surprised to see him however, his silent questions were answered a moment later.

"Freed, can I borrow you for a minute?" 

The rune mage nodded and turned to Y/n.

"I'll be back in a minute, you can carry on reading without me,"

The H/c girl nodded and Freed left the room. Y/n turned back to the book, grabbing one of the notes and trying to decipher some of the symbols.

She rested her head on her hand, her elbow resting on the table as she worked, scribbling down ideas and letters that correlated with the ones in the notes. She felt her eyes growing heavy after a while and had to stand up and walk around for a while to keep herself awake. Unfortunately, this didn't work for long and as soon as the H/c mage sat down again, she felt herself drifting off to sleep once more, her head resting on top of the book and the crumpled notes as sleep began to overtake her.  
  


_Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked a couple of times to clear her view. her eyes stung with sleep and she glanced around the room to see she was still in the guild's library. Everything looked the same however, something felt off. Something she couldn't put her finger on. A sort of haze seemed to have settled over the room, tinting everything with a cloudy glow. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she stood up from where she sat, closing the book before her and grabbing the notes before making her way to the library doors to go and find Freed. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep for but Freed may be waiting for her and so, she exited the room, noticing something was clearly wrong immediately. The Guildhall was abandoned. And it looked like it had been for a while. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and a layer of dust coated everything, sending a shiver of fear down Y/n's spine as she walked. Something brushed past her, touching her back and brushing her hair to the side however as she spun around to see what it was, she saw nothing but the shadows in the doorway to the library. The shadows seemed to engulf the entire hall and the H/c girl continued walking, weaving through tables which had been moved, some lying knocked over until she reached the bar, seeing everything in the same place as usual albeit with an extra layer of dust on top._

_"What on earth...?" The H/c mage asked herself, looking around and seeing no signs of life. "Where is everyone...?"_

_Another breeze brushed past her, startling the H/c girl who spun around to see another person stood behind her._

_She couldn't make out the person's face however as their hood covered the large majority of their face_

_"So you found the book?" The deep voice that came from the hooded figure unnerved her slightly and she found herself stepping backwards away from the figure._

_"Who are you?" She asked, trying to steady her voice, receiving nothing but a laugh in response._

_"That doesn't matter, what does matter is you found that book, now if only you could remember the messages we left you,"_

_The figure stepped aside and showed the H/c girl that on the wall behind him, were ancient runes, like the ones in the book. And they looked awfully familiar._

_"What's wrong? Can't work out where they're from? Let me help you out,"_

_The figure reached out a hand and pressed their palm to Y/n's forehead and the H/c girl began falling backwards, her vision fading to black as she slipped into unconsciousness._

_When she awoke again, she was laid on the floor in a dimly lit room. She looked around and saw three beds, standing up and getting a better look at the room as realisation dawned on her._

_She was in the same hotel room she had stayed in with_ _Erza_ _and Lucy. Her head snapped to look at the wall and saw the lines of runes written on the wall._

_Her eyes scanned over the text and she tried to memorise as many symbols she could before her vision began growing dark again. Desperation clawed at her as she frantically read over the symbols, trying to remember everything written whilst black spots clouded her vision. She felt herself falling backwards however, she was powerless to stop it as her head hit the floor and she finally lost consciousness._

 

When she awoke, she found herself in the library again, immediately feeling a spike of fear at the memory of her dream. She looked around and saw everything as it should be, feeling reassured by that fact as she looked towards the clock on the wall.

It showed her that it was currently half nine at night, making her eyes widen in surprise as she scrambled up from where she sat at the table before stopping for a moment to grab a blank piece of paper. The runes from the dream were burned into her brain and she wanted to write them down before she forgot them. She quickly scribbled down what she could remember before gathering everything.

 

 

 

After grabbing the book and the notes, she made her way hurriedly out of the library, relieved to see the guild hall looking normal and full of life, however, as she looked around the room, she couldn't spot Freed anywhere. Deciding to ask Mira, she headed over to the bar, gaining the takeover mage's attention.

"Hey Mira, do you know where Freed's disappeared to?" Her hand reached up to rub at her neck bashfully "I kind of fell asleep for a little bit,"

"Hmm," Mira seemed to think for a while before regretfully shaking her head "I'm sorry, I don't remember seeing him since he left with Laxus earlier,"

Y/n nodded and thanked Mira, deciding to make her way back to Freed's and see if he was back already.

She held the book close to her chest as she walked, still shaken up from her dream and wondered what the rune mage had been up to all day. 

She reached the house soon enough and saw the lights turned on, entering and calling out to Freed.

"You're back," Freed's voice sounded serious and Y/n gave him a wary look as he appeared in the doorway

"Sorry, I fell asleep in the library," Y/n laughed somewhat awkwardly, put off by Freed's suddenly cold attitude.

"I was wondering what was taking so long,"

Y/n glanced up at the rune mage to find an unreadable expression on his face, unnerving the H/c girl.

"Is everything okay?" Y/n asked worriedly, receiving a nod from Freed.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Come on, it's late,"

The two got ready for bed and thoughts rushed through Y/n's head about why Freed may be acting weirdly, however, she didn't get much time to think as her eyes slipped closed as soon as her head hit the pillow, plunging her into another odd dream.


	18. 18 ▫ A Change In Relationship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who finally found out how to put images in the centre of the page....me...whooo  
> On another note though, a quick disclaimer for this chapter, I am not an expert on the English language and honestly, I had no clue what a digraph or anything was before writing this story so some of it may not be accurate.  
> Different websites were all giving different lists of consonant/vowel digraphs and I honestly didn't know which one to trust so I guess I kind of combined all the websites I found.  
> If anyone wants to correct anything about those parts feel free although it may take me a while to fix it as they're on images which makes it a pain to change the chapter  
> But anyway, enjoy this chapter which took an awful lot of research about the English language

Y/n spent the next few days cooped up in the guild's library, researching and reading to decode the notes and the runes she had remembered. She had hardly seen Freed since the other day as the rune mage had been busy most days however, she was content with decoding the notes on her own, enjoying the company of Lucy and Levy when they decided to check up on her. Currently, she sat at the table in the library, the old book opened in front of her and various papers and pens sprawled across the surface whilst her eyes scanned over the pages of the book for what must have been the millionth time that week.

 

She glanced at the notes she had made already, noticing the many gaps in the sentences she had decoded before looking back to the book again. Her gaze drifted between the book and the notes as she looked for the symbols she had missed.

She moved to pick up her pen again however, at that moment, she was interrupted by Natsu loudly entering the library with Lucy following sheepishly behind him.

"How's it going?" The celestial mage asked, receiving a grim smile from Y/n.

"I think I'm getting there....it's confusing though,"

Natsu huffed from where he stood and Lucy turned to him.

"See I told you she was busy,"

Natsu looked away and turned to Y/n

"Well we've probably distracted her now anyway, Y/n do you want to fight me?" The dragon slayer asked enthusiastically.

"Seriously?" Y/n asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Seriously," Natsu repeated, to which the H/c girl grinned

"Sure, I mean, Freed's disappeared somewhere again so I've not trained with him in a while,"

Lucy looked shocked however it soon turned to a grin.

"Y/n, please beat him or he'll never shut up about it," The celestial mage grinned as Y/n followed them outside.

Both mages got into position and a small crowd started to gather around them. Natsu attacked first, launching towards the H/c girl with his fist surrounded by flames and Y/n only narrowly managed to avoid it, rolling to the side and standing up quickly, using the opportunity to send her own attack and catch Natsu off guard.

The dragon slayer was knocked back slightly however, he bounced back quickly, deflecting Y/n's next attack and landing a hard attack on the H/c mage.

Y/n quickly brought her hands back, a dark ball of magic forming between her two hands which she sent towards the dragon slayer. Another flaming punch came towards her and she moved out of the way as fast as possible, firing another attack towards Natsu who was coming at her again.

"You're pretty good," Natsu commented as the battle turned towards physical fighting. Both mages threw attacks whilst trying to defend themselves, fists flying everywhere in a flurry of movement.

The crowd around them had grown bigger and Y/n could hear multiple guild members shouting various names and words of encouragement however she didn't let herself focus on them too much, paying attention to the battle at hand as she was knocked back by a particularly hard attack.

Just as Natsu began thinking he had the upper hand, Y/n sent another attack, catching him off guard and gaining an advantage with a series of hard, fast attacks.

They continued for a while longer before both mages were out of breath and panting, leaning over slightly.

"As I said, you're good. I think I'll quit now though, don't want to hurt you too much," Natsu grinned, to which Y/n rolled her eyes.

"Yeah right, you wouldn't hurt me, I could carry on for hours," The H/c girl grinned as the two walked back over to Lucy, still out of breath.

"It's a good job you were outside or something would have been destroyed," The celestial mage commented with a sigh of relief as they headed back inside the guild.

When they entered the guild, excited chatter was filling the room with mages talking between themselves excitedly.

"Huh? What's everyone so excited about?" Y/n asked, gaining a grin from Natsu.

"It's almost time for the Fantasia parade. Gramps announced it whilst you were in the library before,"

Y/n's face displayed a blank look as she nodded absentmindedly, unsure what the parade actually was but not caring enough to ask.

She turned back to the two mages, explaining that she was going to head back to the library before leaving, sitting down at the same table as before and opening the book to where she had left off previously

 

The H/c girl began making more notes as she read, and began writing down the missing letters she hadn't filled in before as she found them, her forehead furrowing in confusion as she managed to decode the majority of the notes.

"Thirteen Sage street? What's this about?" The H/c mage mumbled to herself, moving on to the next two notes which turned her confusion into worry.

"They can't be trusted..." She glanced around her and looked at the other note "Don't trust them....they can't be trusted.....they will kill you.....he will kill you.....don't say I didn't warn you..."

Her gaze was wary as she looked around her. Who were the notes talking about? They couldn't possibly be about...Freed?

She shook her head as if to physically shake the thought away.

That was stupid.

Freed would never hurt her...or anyone else without good reason.

Y/n tried to swallow down the anger and frustration, willing herself to not tear the notes in two as she stood up to walk around the library for a while, clearing her head.

"This must be wrong,"  The H/c girl declared angrily, storming over to the table again and slamming her hands down on the table surface. Her eyes scanned over the pages of the book again, checking that she had read everything right before she leaned back again, her hands coming up to rub at her face in frustration.

"It can't be..."

Making the sudden decision to return home, she gathered up the book and the notes, shoving the loose pieces of paper inside the book before leaving the guild for the night, worry and frustration bubbling up inside her.

 

 

 

Over the next few days, Y/n tried not to let the notes get to her too much and, luckily, it had been working up until now. Freed had hardly spoken to her for a few days now and although she knew she should probably be concerned, she was too worried to really ask.

Currently, it was the day before the Fantasia Parade and whilst everyone else in the guild had been filled with overflowing excitement, Y/n had been unable to sleep for the past few days from fear. It had begun visibly taking a toll on her, with dark circles forming under her eyes and her attention span significantly decreasing.

It was late and she had begun heading home after another day of hardly seeing the rune mage. The streets were quiet and she was slightly unnerved as she reached the house, entering and closing the door behind her and immediately being surrounded by darkness.

"Freed?" She called out, confusion filling her body. When there was no response, she removed her shoes and headed further into the house, turning the lights on her way.

"Freed?" She tried again and waited to hear a response, again receiving nothing.

Upon entering the kitchen, she saw a note resting on the table, heading over to the surface, reading over the words written.

 

_Y/n, I will probably be quite late back today. There's food in the fridge, Freed._

 

 The H/c mage looked around, again seeing no sign of the rune mage and deciding to listen to the note. After checking the fridge and eating, she got changed into more comfortable clothes. She took the book and the notes, sitting in the living room and reading to try and keep herself awake until the rune mage returned. Her eyes began slipping closed after reading a couple of pages and after the days of sleepless nights, she couldn't fight it any longer. Her body slumped against the back of the sofa and she felt herself quickly slipping into sleep.

 

 

Freed walked back home, the night sky black with how late it was. The streets were quiet and empty as he walked, only getting more and more silent as he grew closer to his house. Slight guilt welled up inside him as he thought about Y/n who was currently alone in his house. He knew what would happen tomorrow would hurt them all but at this point, he was too far in to back out. As he reached the house, he took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh before pushing open the door and entering the darkened house. After removing his shoes, he moved through the house, spotting Y/n asleep on the sofa causing a small smile to slip onto his face.

As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he had grown fond of the H/c mage and so, he found himself gently scooping her up in his arms after moving the book off her lap. He made his way to his bedroom, not having the effort to set up the fold out bed and so, he placed her down, moving the covers over her and gently moving a stray piece of hair out of her face.

"I'm sorry...." He mumbled before moving to get ready for bed, lying down next to the H/c girl "I doubt you'll ever forgive me after tomorrow...but I'm sorry Y/n...."

With that last thought, Freed fell asleep, his eyes focusing on Y/n's face until they closed.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	19. 19 ▫ Let The Battle Begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: Gonna be honest, the next few chapters are probably the best ones in this story so yay, I guess? I mean, you can't write about Freed without somehow bringing in the battle of Fairy Tail it seems. But anyway, I've planned the rest of this story and have got 36 chapters planned however, I tend to replan everything as I go and add thigs in so that number may vary slightly. Also one of the chapters I've started writing I'm not happy with at all so I may scrap that chapter completely and just move on, anyway, enjoy this chapter! :)))))

Y/n awoke the next morning with a strange sense of foreboding. The sun shone brightly through a tiny gap in the curtains and it took her brain a moment to catch on to the fact that she was in Freed's bed once more. The rune mage was nowhere to be seen and Y/n cast her mind back to the previous day, trying to piece together how she ended up in Freed's bed. She remembered returning home and seeing a note from Freed, then everything became blurry. She had been sat on the sofa reading and then her memory cut off. Figuring she must have fallen asleep, she got out of bed, heading out of the bedroom to try and find Freed, being greeted by silence throughout the entire building.

As she entered the kitchen, another note was placed on the table which she headed over to, picking up the piece of paper and reading it.

_Y/n, sorry I'm not here again. Laxus needed help with preparations for the Fantasia Parade today, Freed_

The H/c girl placed the note back down, starting to get ready and make something to eat, humming a quiet tune as she cooked.

Not long later, she was leaving the house, heading down the familiar path towards the guild with a wide smile plastered upon her face. The streets were alive with different stalls and people walking and colourful bunting hung from between the lampposts lining the streets. The atmosphere it created was enough to put a smile on anyone's face and Y/n found herself humming happily as she reached the guild. She ran into Lucy outside and began happily chatting with the blonde who had decided to enter the Miss Fairy Tail competition. Y/n laughed along with her and offered to come and support her, the two entering the guildhall where the competition was taking place. As the competition got underway, excitement filled the hall, with people from the guild and people who lived in Magnolia filling the hall and chattering excitedly.

The announcer began introducing the mages who each, in turn, came on stage to perform their magic. The crowd went wild with each new contestant and Y/n found herself grinning widely seeing members of the guild enjoying themselves. She heard Lucy's name being called out and saw the celestial mage enter the stage, waving at her from where she sat with Natsu, Gray and Elfman.

Another voice called out however as Lucy started to perform, sending the entire guild hall into a state of confusion.

"Entry number eight," The voice began, ignoring Lucy's protests. Y/n's eyes widened upon seeing who walked on stage. Her shock must have been clear on her face as well as everyone else's as stood in the middle of the stage now was Evergreen. The H/c mage still hadn't seen Freed anywhere and this unexpected turn of events unnerved her slightly, as it had apparently done with the rest of the crowd.

"Lucy, don't look into her eyes!" Gray shouted from next to the H/c girl, sending panic throughout the guildhall.

"What's going on?" Y/n asked desperately, her eyes flicking between the stage and the guild members sat around her.

Before anyone knew what was happening, There was a wave of magic and Lucy stood, now a stone statue on the stage, sending everyone into a panicked frenzy. Most of the crowd rushed out of the hall, flooding out onto the streets and leaving only a few members of the guild.

"What are you doing, Evergreen! Are you trying to ruin the festival?" Master Makarov exclaimed, anger clear in his voice as the curtain raised slowly, revealing the remaining contestants also turned to stone.

Y/n's head snapped around in confusion and fear before a crackling of lightning appeared, drawing everyone's attention to Laxus who now stood in the middle of the guildhall, the rest of the raijinshuu surrounding him,

"Laxus!" Makarov asked angrily, gaining a smirk from the lightning dragon slayer.

"Freed and Bixslow?" Gray questioned, making Y/n's eyes widen

"Freed?" Her head snapped around the see the rune mage who refused to make eye contact with her as she stared at him in confusion.

"Turn them back to normal right now!" Makarov roared, his fists clenching at his sides. Y/n's eyes darted around the room in slight fear, feeling the tension that hung thickly in the air.

"I wonder just how many people will survive to be in the Fantasia parade," Laxus chuckled darkly as a bolt of lightning appeared beside Lucy "I'll take these girls as hostages," The dragon slayer wrapped an arm around Lucy, ignoring the outraged shouts from various guild members "I'll destroy them one by one if you break the rules,"

"Let's clearly see once and for all who's the strongest in Fairy Tail," Freed's voice was emotionless as he and Bixslow joined the rest of their team on the stage

"Yeah, it's time to play," Bixslow laughed, his 'babies' repeating after him

Y/n felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs as she glared at the rune mage. So this is why he wasn't there this morning! How could he lie to her? Her thoughts were interrupted once more by Laxus explaining

"The rules are simple, the last one standing wins. The battle of Fairy Tail," 

Natsu, ever confident, immediately approached the lightning mage with his fist flaming, stating how he would beat him easily, however, the dragon slayer was easily wiped out by a quick bolt of lightning before Laxus continued

"If you want them returned to normal, you'll have to defeat us,"

"The time limit is three hours," Evergreen grinned "If you can't defeat us, they'll turn to dust,"

Makarov seemed to reach the end of his patience, moving to attack, however, at that moment, the room was filled with bright lightning once more, temporarily blinding everyone before revealing Laxus and the rest of the raijinshuu to be nowhere in sight.

There was a beat of silence before guild members began rushing out into the streets of magnolia, determined to beat the raijinshuu and turn the others back to normal, however, upon reaching the door, both Makarov and Y/n found themselves stopped by an invisible wall. Purple text flashed up in the doorway, much to the disbelief of Y/n. Gray stopped on the other side, turning to look at them both.

"Freed's runes?" Both Y/n and Makarov spoke at the same time.

"Those older than eighty or stone statues may not pass," Makarov read, much to both Y/n and Gray's confusion.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Y/n cried, walking forwards again and putting her palm out. When she came into contact with the runes, they flared purple again and showed resistance when she tried to get through them.

"They really thought of everything?" Gray questioned, glaring at the purple text.

"I guess we'll have to handle it ourselves," Gray stated, leaving in search of Laxus and his team.

Y/n sighed and turned to look back at the stone statues, her voice shaky as she quietly questioned.

"Why would you do this Freed?"

Makarov also turned back to the stone statues, spotting Reedus and asking him to get Porlyusica to see if she had a way to turn the statues back to normal.

As Reedus left, Natsu shot awake, asking a million and one questions about where Laxus was and where everyone disappeared to and after a brief explanation from Makarov, he moved to run out of the guild, only to be stopped too by the runes.

The three of them stood in the guild, confusion filling the air as they tried to figure out why Y/n and Natsu couldn't leave, however, their confusion was quickly replaced when more text appeared in the doorway

_Current status report; Jet vs. Droy vs. Alzack_

"Why are they fighting each other?" Natsu cried outraged, banging his fists against the rune wall.

"This is why he's been so busy recently...?" Y/n spoke quietly, more to herself than to anyone else.

"Laxus...You won't get away with this..." Makarov growled before another line of text appeared

_Winner: Alzack_

_Max vs. Warren_

_Winner: Warren_

_Bigitar vs. Nab_

_Winner: Nab_

The names kept on appearing with more and more guild members being wiped out whilst they were powerless to stop it. A moment of realisation passed over Y/n and she quietly spoke 

"I could try and rewrite it..."

The other two didn't hear her correctly and so, she repeated it, louder this time. And with more confidence.

"I could rewrite it. I could let us out of here. I've rewritten Freed's runes before,"

She pulled out one of her daggers and held it out, reding over the runes again before trying to write new symbols to change the current ones.

She tried to write as fast as she could however, it appeared the rune mage had made these runes much more complex, most likely in an attempt to prevent her from rewriting them. More text appeared as she was working, filling all of them with worry

_Evergreen vs. Elfman_

_Winner: Evergreen_

_Gray vs. Bixslow_

_Freed vs. Reedus_

Y/n didn't bother diverting her attention to read what appeared, however, she momentarily lost her concentration when Natsu spoke

"Reedus was taken out by Freed!" 

The H/c mage's eyes widened and she tried to regain her focus on the runes.

"Why is he doing this?" She cried in frustration, her attention thoroughly lost as the rewritten text shattered before her.

"It's all just a bluff anyway. The statues aren't going to crumble if we run out of time," Natsu spoke before another voice spoke behind the three.

"You think I'm bluffing Natsu?" 

The three turned to see a projection of the lightning dragon slayer.

"I bet you can't stand watching them destroy each other since Erza and Natsu can't join in, I guess there's no one who can beat the raijinshuu. Would you like to surrender?" The projection asked with a smirk.

"There's still Gray, he's almost as strong as Natsu!" Happy protested, earning a laugh from Laxus.

"I wouldn't put my hopes in him!" 

_Gray vs. Bixslow_

_Winner: Bixslow_

Loud, obnoxious laughter was heard from Laxus as he commented

"What did I tell you, huh? Who's going to beat the raijinshuu now?"

The conversation continued and  Y/n tried to focus again and rewrite the runes, however, she was shocked when she heard Makarov speak.

"Alright that's enough," Makarov turned to Laxus and Y/n's concentration faltered again "I surrender...So please stop this Laxus,"

The lighting mage did nothing but smirk for a moment.

"That's no good...But if you insist, how about you give up your position as Fairy Tail's master to me?"

The other three mages faces displayed their shock as Natsu protested.

"So that's what you were after!" 

"There's just an hour and a half left until the statues crumble to dust...If you want to, all you have to do is use the guild's loudspeaker and announce to the whole town. What's more important, your own position or your friends?"

With that, the projection disappeared, leaving them all deep in thought, staring at the spot where Laxus previously stood.

"I don't mind about giving up my position...however I can not place Fairy Tail in the hands of Laxus...but at this rate, the others are all going to turn to dust"

Noise from behind the bar alerted them to someone's presence and Gajeel sat up from behind the bar, much to their surprise.

The iron dragon slayer made his way towards the exit, determined to defeat Laxus however, as he reached the door to the guild, he too found himself stopped by the runes.

"I don't understand," Y/n spoke "There's nothing in the runes that should stop us from leaving! It doesn't make sense,"

_Freed vs. Alzack_

_Winner: Freed_

Y/n's eyes widened upon seeing this and she couldn't help the frustration building up inside her, her fist slamming against the rune wall.

"We're running out of time! Damn it Freed!" The H/c mage growled

"We'll revive Erza," Natsu stated, heading over to the statues and using his magic to heat up Erza.

A long crack began forming down her forehead and everyone froze in fear before the stone continued to crack before eventually shattering off, freeing the Requip mage.

"Do you know what's going on?" Makarov asked, to which Erza nodded. 

"Even though I was turned to stone I could still hear what you were saying," She replied "Let's defeat Laxus and free the others,"

With that, Erza left, leaving Natsu, Gajeel, Y/n and Makarov still trapped. Y/n decided to try again at rewriting the runes whilst the others observed patiently.

Only one thought was one her mind as she wrote;

_Why would Freed do this?_

 

 


	20. 20 ▫ An Unexpected Twist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was impossible to edit...I'm at a wedding this weekend so I thought it would be nice to put fake nails on and now I'm completely useless and can't do anything, especially typing...
> 
> But anyway, I'm gonna be honest I've been hella annoyed by this fic these past few weeks, I've been writing it non-stop for the past few months and to be completely honest it's getting to the point where I'm sick of it. I've tried to stay a few chapters ahead with it so I still have another 4? chapters written I think? So updates will be normal for the next month or so, and I'm planning to take this next week off writing as I'm away anyway and hopefully when I come back I should be carrying this on as normal.
> 
> I appreciate everyone who has been reading this and I'm going to try my best to continue with regular updates for you all but at the moment everything I'm writing is just terrible quality and I feel like taking a break is the only way I can fix that.
> 
> If nothing is said in the next chapter about this, it's safe to assume that I'll be continuing this as normal but even if I do change when I upload, it will still be updated every two weeks instead of one at the very most.
> 
> Sorry for the long note but anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Y/n growled in frustration upon failing to rewrite Freed's runes once more, her hands reaching up to rub at her face in frustration. She took in a deep breath, closing her eyes and trying to will away the frustration that filled her body. When she opened her eyes again, she saw another few lines of text on the rune wall

_Erza vs. Evergreen_

_Winner: Erza_

"Wait so that means...?" The H/c mage began talking, spinning around the see the stone statues turning back to normal one by one.

"What happened?" Juvia asked confused, prompting a brief explanation from Makarov. Everything almost seemed to go back to normal for a moment, with everyone joking around and Natsu threatening to fight everyone, it was almost possible to forget what was happening and go back to their normal lives, however, everything changed as more runes appeared, forming the shape of a skull in the centre of the guildhall. Everyone in the room stared wide-eyed at the red skull, surprise and confusion evident on their faces as it began to talk.

"Can you hear me, old man?" Laxus' voice echoed throughout the guildhall, stray runes flying around the room.

"Laxus!" A chorus of confused and angry shouts filled the guildhall

"Seems one of the rules is gone, so I'll make a new rule now. In order for the Battle of Fairy Tail to continue, I have activated the thunder palace," Laxus' voice explained

"Thunder Palace?" Makarov exclaimed, looking positively furious

"You have an hour and ten minutes left. So, can you defeat me? Or will you retire , Master?"

With that, the rune began shattering, flying everywhere and disintegrating until nothing of the skull was left.

"What are you thinking Laxus? You plan on getting innocent people involved in this?" Makarov roared in anger before pausing and clutching his chest in pain, collapsing to the ground, much to everyone's surprise.

"Master!" A series of confused shouts chorused through the guild. Mirajane rushed to get his medication and Natu began questioning what Laxus was talking about however, at that moment Mira returned.

"Everyone, look outside!" She shouted, pointing to the second floor of the guild where the mages all rushed.

Upon looking outside, they saw floating spheres, each one containing a yellow thunderbolt.

"What are those?" Natsu asked, leaning over the balcony to get a better look.

"Thunderbolt lacrima..." Cana sounded as confused as Y/n felt, staring up at the spheres creating a circle above Magnolia.

As they began discussing their options, Cana explained that if they were set off, they would rain countless thunderbolts down onto the city, causing mass destruction and injury.

Before anyone could consider their options, Bisca moved into position, locking onto one of the lacrimas and shooting at it. The attack successfully exploded the sphere however just as it looked like this may solve one of their problems, lightning began raining down on the green-haired mage, gaining cries of surprise and shock from the rest of the group. Levy moved to help Bisca as Cana exclaimed

"We need to defeat Laxus!"

A chorus of agreements sounded out and the mages who were able to all left the guild, rushing out into the streets of Magnolia to try and find Freed, Bixslow and Laxus.  
Natsu clenched his teeth and growled in anger, running towards the edge of the balcony with his fist lit up with flames.  
He was met with the same resistance as before and huffed in frustration, using all his effort to try and break through the rune barrier.  
"Natsu, calm down!" Levy called from where she had settled, books spread out surrounding her as she tried to decode Freed's runes. Y/n sat next to her and tried to help where she could, otherwise simply observing how the solid script mage was decoding the runes.  
"This is no time to be calm!" The fire dragon slayer replied in frustration, banging his fist against the barrier once more.

"Just listen," Levy sighed as Natsu continued hitting the barrier

"Damn it,"

"It's one of the writing magics so I might be able to help. And Y/n knows about runes," The solid script mage explained, Natsu turning to her with surprise clear on his face.

"Really?"

"I believe that you can stop Laxus," She spoke confidently.

 

 

The guildhall was currently littered by books of all types, stacked on top of each other or opened onto specific pages. Y/n and Levy sat in a small clearing in the book mountain as Y/n explained what she had already tried to remove the runes. Levy wrote down what the H/c mage said and re-read it a couple of times to ensure she had it right as Gajeel sat nearby, watching with an impressed look on his face.

The two of them worked whilst Natsu continued trying to break through the rune barrier when another line of text appeared.

_Lucy vs. Bixslow_

_Winner: Lucy_

"Lucy won!" Natsu shouted before getting into a heated discussion with Gajeel.

"I can see why you struggled with this...If I can just work out this last part..." Levy briefly turned to Y/n before trailing off at the end. "That's it!" The solid script mage sat up from where she was hunched over, a victorious glint in her eyes. "You read the two grammars at different rates to decipher it!" She began writing, her hand moving ridiculously fast as she wrote, mumbling to herself. "Then I match the corresponding time differentiated letters and convert to Gheel grammar..."

Y/n simply stared wide-eyed as Levy worked, looking just as confused as Natsu and Gajeel, now knowing why she hadn't been able to rewrite the runes earlier.

Levy finished what she was writing and jumped up from where she sat.

"I solved it! Wait a second, I'll rewrite the runes now,"

As Levy finished writing, the wall of text shattered, symbols falling to the ground and disappearing. Almost as soon as the runes disappeared, Natsu and Gajeel were out the door, rushing off to find Laxus, meanwhile, Y/n turned to Levy with a serious expression upon her face.

"I'm going to try and find Freed. Maybe try and knock some sense into him if I can," The H/c girl explained, receiving a nod from Levy.

"Be careful. Especially as this isn't training, he might be more serious than usual," 

With that, the H/c girl nodded again and left, making her way out into the streets of Magnolia, searching for the rune mage.

Anger built up inside her at the thought of what Freed's traps had been doing to members of the guild and she became determined to make him realise what he had done wrong.

She shook her head and carried on running, turning down another street, leading to the edge of town. She knew she had gone the right way when she saw dust flying in a large cloud above a bridge crossing the river. She froze for a moment before the dust began settling, revealing Freed and Cana engaged in a fierce battle. As she set off running once more, she saw Cana send an attack towards the rune mage, only for it to be reversed, heading straight back towards her. Another loud explosion as Cana was hit and her vision was once again obscured by dust as her eyes began watering.

She could vaguely hear what was being said as she approached.

"Take back what you said about Juvia!"

The H/c mage looked around in surprise, spotting Juvia led motionless. As she rushed over, she noticed the water mages eyes were open and she was breathing, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Juvia! Are you alright?" The H/c mage dropped down to her knees next to Juvia who gave a weak smile

"I'll be fine...Please, help Cana..." Y/n looked unsure, however, at that moment, a gut-wrenching scream pierced the air. The H/c mage looked up, her eyes locking on Cana who fell to her knees in pain. She could see purple runes written across Cana's forehead and guessed that Freed had used one of his dark écriture spells on her, feeling pure rage building up inside her.

"Freed! Stop it!" Y/n jumped up from where she was, running towards the rune mage whilst grabbing the handles of her daggers. Freed looked surprised to see her however, he reacted in time to block her attack with his sword.

"You should still be in the guild!" He sounded surprised however, he didn't let it affect his fighting, sending an attack towards her.

"Shut up! Why are you doing this?" Y/n shouted, tears of frustration building in her eyes as she stumbled backwards slightly.

"That's none of your business," He replied, "You shouldn't have gotten inv..." 

Shock made it's way onto Freed's face as runes shot up around them, creating a trap much like the ones that he himself had set.

Y/n felt a spike of unease, seeing the surprise on Freed's face and looking around at the runes which surrounded them.

"Freed..?" The H/c girl asked unsurely, hoping that it was simply a misunderstanding ad that this was one of Freed's rune traps. Y/n placed a hand on the wall and the barrier flashed red around her hand, revealing the same symbols from the notes and the book. She stared wide-eyed as fear coursed through her veins, lifting her gaze to the text detailing what they must do to escape.

_You thought you were so smart working out what those notes say,_

_Try to decode this then,_

_Only one may leave this trap standing,_

_You must fight until one of you can no more._

Y/n felt her pulse racing as she glanced towards the rune mage whose face was emotionless.

"I guess there's nothing else that can be done," The rune mage spoke solemnly and Y/n shook her head slowly in disbelief.

"Freed...no..." She mumbled, refusing to believe that the rune mage was listening to what it said before the rune mage swung his sword around, sending runes flying towards her as she tried to dodge it ."Freed!" She practically screamed his name, having narrowly missed his attack, hoping for him to come to his senses.

Another attack sent her way gave her all the answers she needed and she prepared herself to fight, glaring at the rune mage who simply stared back.

If that's how he wanted to play, that was fine with her.

 

 


	21. 21 ▫ Defeat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm back, I'm still questioning how I'm continuing this story but I am still going to try and update every week. As I said, I am a few chapters ahead and I think part of the problem is I want to be further ahead even though I'm already pretty far ahead. I keep stressing myself out because I'm not however many chapters ahead and I need to stop but anyway, I will try and continue this story but I do worry that the quality of these chapters is going downhill a bit so if you notice that please tell me and I'll go back and fix things.  
> Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Y/n fell back against the wall of runes with a grunt. She saw purple runes inscribed on her arm and felt crippling pain shoot up the limb, making her cry out in surprise. She didn't realise she had dropped the dagger she had been holding in that hand until she glanced down before having to quickly dodge Freed's sword which swung towards her.

Right now, the rune mage who stood before her wasn't her friend. He was intent on defeating her. But god help her if he thought she'd go down without a fight.

"Black magic; darkness!" Y/n shouted, pure rage filling her as her surroundings grew dark, her eyes quickly adjusting.

The rune mages attacks became clumsy and uncoordinated as the shadows obscured his vision. She could see him squinting to see her and managed to dodge the next few swings from his sword.

"Black magic; shadow ball!" The ball of darkness was sent hurtling towards Freed however, Y/n saw his smirk too late as he spoke.

"Dark Écriture; Reflect," 

The H/c mage could see his right eye glowing eerily in the darkness before she felt her own attack hit her directly in the chest with a sickening crack, leaving her gasping for breath as she stumbled backwards.

"You bastard. Hurting your friends? What's wrong with you?" Y/n wheezed with a sneer. "And to think I started to trust you,"

The rune mage seemed to freeze slightly before he approached her again. She struggled to stand up, just managing to whilst holding a hand to her no doubt bruised ribs.

"Dark Écriture; Pain," Freed spoke somewhat quieter than normal. "I'm sorry,"

Y/n didn't hear the last part of what Freed said, only seeing his lips moving as pain rippled throughout her body, making her curl over to try and reduce the pain that seemed to come from deep within her.

Gritting her teeth, the H/c mage tried to push herself up, stumbling backwards slightly before letting out a blood-curdling yell

"Freed!"

She tried running towards the rune mage, slashing with the dagger she still had in her hand. Anything. Anything that would stop him. Another loud cry escaped her as she summoned all the strength she had left

"Black magic; shadow rain!" 

Glowing balls of darkness began raining down on them both as Y/n collapsed to her knees, the pain coursing through her body becoming too much. The rune mage paused for a moment before his voice was heard, quiet and dark.

"Dark Écriture; Reflect," 

He turned his back to Y/n walking away as a sickening cry was heard, seeing the runes around them disappearing and sighing, glancing back at where Y/n's battered body lay unmoving.

"I'll regret this for the rest of my life...I'm sorry Y/n," He spoke more to himself as he knew the H/c girl wouldn't hear it.

As the rune mage began walking away, he heard two familiar voices coming from underneath the now-destroyed bridge.

"Cana!" Mira's voice was heard 

"Damn it, what the hell is going on?" Elfman was also heard and the rune mage began walking towards them.

"Stop this Freed!" Mira shouted, almost desperately.

"Why you...." Elfman sounded overcome by rage

"Elfman," Freed began, confused to see the younger Strauss sibling "You lost to Ever. You have no right to join back in the game,"

"Shut up!" Elfman looked positively fuming, Mira's expression not being all that much different.

"That's enough! Aren't we on the same team?" Mira questioned the rune mage.

"We once were, yes," Freed's voice was emotionless as he spoke, watching with a cold gaze "But those relationships no longer apply during this game, since our purpose is to change the guild" Raising his sword, Freed continued "Here, Laxus' enemy is my enemy,"

"Enough talking!" Elfman charged forwards however, he was halted by a single swing of Freed's sword, his eye glowing deep purple. 

Runes glowed on his chest and he questioned

"What's this?"

"It is forbidden for someone who has lost already to re-enter the game," Freed spoke, cold and calculating "Those who break the rules will be subject to a fate worse than death," He stared directly at Elfman "Dark Écriture; Pain,"

The runes written across Elfman's chest glowed brighter and brighter, the light enveloping his entire body as he threw his head back in pain.

Loud screams and shouts of pain came from the takeover mage and Mira's loud shout could be heard

"Elfman!" There was a look of anguish on her face as she shouted desperately "Stop this Freed! Elfman can't fight anymore

Freed didn't respond, simply raising his sword once more.

"Dark Écriture; terror...suffering," Freed sent more runes flying towards Elfman. 

Mira's eyes squeezed closed as she saw the pain written on her younger brother's face, seeing Elfman drop to his knees after a series of non-stop attacks from Freed.

"Dark Écriture; death,"

Upon hearing this, flashbacks clouded Mira's mind. Lisanna's voice saying the last words they ever heard from her.

_"Let's go home..."_

Without thinking, she let her magic take over, surprising the rune mage who startled at the sheer amount of magic power in the air.

The rune mage was caught off guard when he saw Mira's Satan soul as the takeover mage leapt towards him pulling her fist back to hit him.

He quickly wrote runes for wings and tried dodging the attack, only for Mira to follow him. She sent another attack towards him which he only just managed to avoid before he was thrown to the floor by an unsuspected attack. A grunt escaped him as he hit the floor however, he quickly moved again, hoping to create some distance between them so he could plan his next move. No matter how fast he was, however, Mira was faster and quickly appeared behind him, her eyes emotionless and staring straight at him.

"You're dead," She stated, her voice empty.

Another attack came towards him which he tried to counter however, he wasn't fast enough and his sword was knocked out of his hand altogether.

"I've no other choice..." The rune mage spoke to himself as he tried to escape Mira. "Dark Écriture; darkness!"

Red smoke surrounded him as his body changed into that of a beast. He met  Mira's attack head-on, their fists colliding, creating a massive amount of magic power. Punches were thrown and they seemed relatively evenly matched until the rune mage was flung backwards.

He was surprised by the amount of power in every one of Mira's attacks, the amount of magic power in the air was shocking and he was thrown onto the floor by one of Mira's attacks.

The battle went on until Mira sent a particularly powerful spell towards him, turning the sky a dark purple as he was thrown back again against the rocks with a loud grunt.

Trying to move away, he saw Mira standing before him, her eyes glowing a dark red colour.

"I don't stand a chance..." He mumbled to himself, eyes wide as he was slammed against the ground again, Mira pulling back her fist, preparing to hit him.

As she flung her fist towards him, he closed his eyes, preparing for the pain that was no doubt about to come however, he felt Mira freeze, opening his eyes as Mira moved away, her Satan soul wearing off.

"What are you doing...?" He found himself asking in shock

"This kind of fight is meaningless..." She mumbled

"Is this the 'arrogance of the victor' Mirajane?" He asked before adding "Just finish me off,"

"We're comrades...members of the same guild...we laugh together...have fun together...walk together..."

The rune mage tried to protest and caught sight of Elfman carrying Juvia who was unconscious and Cana who was helping Y/n to stand up, the H/c mage looking ready to collapse herself.

"I don't think it's entirely wrong to depend entirely on one person....but you're surrounded by so many other people too...people are always connected with other people...." Mira glanced around to look at the others, taking the rune mage's hand "See? If you just reach out...you'll find them right there...once a person realises it's lonely being alone, they can grow to be kind...You've come to realise that..."

Tears escaped down Freed's face and he lifted his hand to cover his face.

"I never...wanted to do this..."

"I know," Mira smiled gently 

By now the others who stood nearby were also crying slightly and silence settled around them.

After a couple of moments, Freed tried to sit up, struggling to his feet along with Mira and then approaching the others. Y/n gave him a wary look and he felt guilt well up inside him. How could he ever make up for this?

"I need to try and stop Laxus..." Freed spoke "I..I'm terribly sorry...I don't think I can ever make this up to any of you..."

They all moved to protest however, Freed gave a weak smile and moved to start walking towards the cathedral where he knew Laxus was. Y/n opened her mouth to protest however, she stopped herself, simply watching Freed leaving. Cana squeezed her shoulder gently as a form of comfort, the H/c mage giving her a small thankful smile.

"Let's find the others," Mira suggested, receiving nods of agreement as they all made their way to the centre of town, looking for other members of the guild.


	22. 22 ▫ Fantasia

Y/n managed to gather the strength to stand on her own, releasing Cana as they made their way towards the centre of town. They could see the weapons Erza had summoned to try and destroy the thunder palace however, the lacrimas had now begun glowing with electricity. They all sped up, running despite the pain of their injuries however, they paused upon hearing Waren's telepathy.

"Listen up guys, use your magic to destroy the things floating over the town! Laxus is going to use them to attack the city! There's no time! We gotta do it together!"

At this, they all got into position, summoning what little magic power they had left and aiming at the lacrimas.

Various attacks flew through the air aiming for the lacrimas as the whole guild joined together, trying to protect the town from Laxus.

"Black magic; shadow ball," Y/n sent multiple balls of shadows towards the lacrimas, using the very last of her energy. Everything seemed to be going to plan as the lacrimas shattered, raining down shimmering dust however, as they watched, lightning began to rain down on them. Y/n froze seeing the lightning coming towards her before the pain hit her, causing her to collapse to the floor once more, trying her hardest to look around and see where everyone else was. A smile made its way onto her face despite everything. As much as she tried not to get attached to the guild, every day she found herself feeling more and more like she belonged. With this thought, she let her eyes slip closed, content.

Cana called out to the H/c girl however, she didn't respond. The brunette moved over to Y/n's lifeless body and gently shook her arm to try and wake her and the H/c girl stirred slightly.

"..What..? Did it work?" She mumbled, her surroundings looking fuzzy.

"Everyone's safe," Cana clarified, helping the H/c girl to stand as Mira joined them "Come on, let's get back to the guild,"

 

Later on, everything seemed to be back to normal. The guild was back to its usual loud nature and Y/n almost managed to relax slightly for the first time that day, however, something still wasn't right. She hadn't seen Freed since he left to stop Laxus even though the lightning mage had been defeated. If she was being completely honest, she was slightly worried however, she tried not to focus on it, still confused as to why Freed had agreed to this. She took a deep breath to try and get rid of the anger which had started building up inside her and winced in pain. Luckily her injuries were only minor compared to others, however, one of her ribs was supposedly cracked or at least severely bruised, making it painful to breathe. The guild fell silent for a moment and the doors swung open, revealing a bruised and battered Laxus.

Tension hung heavily in the air as Laxus spoke with Makarov, no one wanting to be the one to break the awkwardness however Laxus himself broke it by leaving almost as soon as he entered. No one said a word as he left, no one knowing what to say until the lightning mage was out of sight and earshot.

"We should prepare for the Fantasia Parade," Erza suggested, receiving noises of agreement from the rest of the guild as the guildhall bustled with excitement once more.

 

Y/n was in awe seeing the parade. Fireworks exploded in the sky, creating a sea of colours and lines across a black canvas as the sky darkened gradually. Excited faces lined the streets, children cheering in happiness as the parade started. 

Floats drove through the streets with brightly coloured displays on them with mages displaying their magic, creating beautiful displays and leaving the audience in awe. Y/n stood with Cana on one of the floats whilst the card user created a beautiful display with her magic. Y/n joined in towards the end of it, sending spiralling swirls of darkness into the night sky, intertwining with Cana's card magic creating an intricate pattern of cards and shimmering shadows.

For a brief moment, Y/n glanced out into the crowd, doing a double-take upon seeing a familiar head of green hair. She had to look twice to check she wasn't imagining things as she spotted Freed stood with Bixslow and Evergreen just at the end of one of the side streets. She could barely see them through the throngs of people watching the parade however, she briefly made eye contact with the rune mage, seeing a number of emotions swirling through his eyes. Sadness, pride and regret were all held within his eyes and she found herself trapped, almost forgetting to continue the performance, feeling a small nudge from Cana and immediately turning back to the card mage and sending out more shadowy tendrils.

Happiness welled up inside her for the first time that day as she made eye contact with Cana, receiving a reassuring smile from the card mage as they finished their performance.

"Is everything alright?" Cana asked in a hushed voice so that only Y/n could hear. The H/c mage nodded, quickly explaining.

"I saw Freed...in the crowd...it just shocked me a little bit...." 

The card mage nodded in understanding, taking the H/c mages hand in hers and squeezing it gently, raising her other arm to do Fairy Tails signature hand signal.

Y/n felt tears welling up in her eyes and the sense of belonging overwhelmed her as she followed suit, raising her hand with all but her index finger and thumb down.

She thought back on what had happened that day and the tears building in her eyes finally fell, streaming down her face as she stared out at the crowds of people.

Things may not be okay right now. And things may not go back to exactly how they were however, they would move past this. Instead of running away like she would have done in the past, Y/n would carry on. She would persevere until things were okay again.

These thoughts flooded through her head as the parade finished, the celebration continuing in the guildhall as people drank and partied as if nothing had ever happened.

 

Y/n sat at the bar with Lucy and Levy, chatting with the two mages about the parade. She felt at ease for the first time today however, that would soon change.

The thunder legion had been sat in the corner of the guild all night, feeling out of place amongst the celebrations going on. Guilt welled up inside all of them however, it was noticeably worse for Freed whose eyes followed the H/c girl from across the room. She didn't seem too badly injured however, Freed knew even if she wasn't injured, she would be affected mentally.

Would she even want to speak to him anymore?

Why would she? He had hurt her.

His thoughts were cut off by Evergreen speaking quietly.

"You should go and talk to her,"

The rune mage's eyes widened and he shook his head, looking down at his hands resting on the table before him.

"She won't want to talk to me right now. Maybe I should leave it a while...I might have the smallest chance then,"

"You'll lose your chance baby," Bixslow tried to lighten the mood, nudging the rune mage who turned his gaze to where Bixslow pointed. Loke was now stood with the three girls, wrapping an arm around both Y/n and Lucy as they talked.

Freed lowered his gaze, clenching his fists slightly, trying not to lose what self-control he had left.

"I hurt her, there's no excuse for that. I know. If I was her, I'd never be able to forgive me,"

Evergreen sighed and took his hand, pulling him up from where he sat and pushing him in the direction of the H/c mage.

"Freed, I love you but you can be pretty stupid sometimes. And I'm not about to sit here and let you give up on the first person you've had feelings for since I met you. Now go,"

The rune mage stumbled slightly as he was shoved in the direction of the bar, taking a deep breath and steeling himself as he approached Y/n.

Levy noticed him first and gave him a small smile, speaking quietly to Y/n who turned around, an expressionless look on her face.

"Y/n, can we talk?" He asked, trying not to let his nervousness show in his voice.

The H/c girl looked conflicted, however, after some consideration, her expression turned blank again and she nodded, shrugging Loke's arm off her shoulder and starting to walk towards the doors of the guild. Freed paused for a moment before Y/n turned back to him.

"I imagine you don't want to talk in front of everyone?" She asked, receiving a belated nod from the rune mage who followed after her. This was going to be a long conversation...


	23. 23 ▫ Apologies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I'm away next weekend so I won't be able to update this, unfortunately. I apologise for that but I am still struggling to continue this story as much as I really want to.I've already ranted about that in a previous chapter so I'll not write it all out again but yeah, I feel like this story is really draining me recently and maybe a week without an update might help? I don't know really I'm at a complete loss right now. But anyway, enjoy this chapter.

The two mages exited the guild, however, Y/n continued walking, leading them away from the guild and away from prying eyes. As they found a quiet spot, Y/n turned back to the rune mage, her arms crossing across her chest as she looked at the rune mage expectantly. Freed took a deep breath and looked into Y/n's eyes, trying to think of how to say everything that was filling his head. Y/n looked almost concerned now however, there was still slight frustration in her eyes.

Freed sighed and began talking.

"Ugh...I don't even know where to start...I should apologise, for today, I blindly followed Laxus and I realise that was the wrong thing to do...If there was a way to go back and change things..I would...But obviously, I can't,"  

Y/n still stared somewhat sceptically and she asked

"Why did you go along with it?" 

Her voice was cold and emotionless and Freed faltered for a  moment before answering.

"I...Laxus...I've followed him for as long as I remember...He's the first friend I ever made...I didn't think he was capable of this so when he suggested, I guess I thought he'd never go ahead with it...Not that it excuses what I did," The rune mage paused for a moment "I know you probably don't want to be around me right now, I deserve that but I want to let you know," He sighed loudly "That I'm really sorry for what happened. I don't expect you to forgive me but if you'd let me, I'd like to make it up to you. I know I may not have shown it much but I like you Y/n, I'm not close with many people but I'd like to get to know you better, if you'd let me,"

Now it was Y/n's turn to sigh and Freed looked away.

"I can't..." The H/c mage began "I can't forgive you yet...What you did was beyond unacceptable....and stupid...but I can't say I don't understand why you did what you did...When the people you care about ask you to do something, you often do it without hesitation, after all, why would they tell you to do something wrong?" Y/n looked off with a wistful expression and Freed almost tried asking what was wrong however, the H/c mage continued "But they do. People lie and use others to hurt the people around them. That I can understand. So I'm not mad..."

The rune mage looked ready to protest however, Y/n held her hand up to stop him.

"Let's just try and move past this, okay?" Y/n gave a small smile "I don't want to fight with you again..." The H/c girl looked down to avoid Freed's eyes however, the rune mages hand came to rest on her cheek, tilting her face to look at him before realising what he did, pulling away with a slightly flushed face.

"Sorry..!" He noticed Y/n was also slightly red in the face however, he didn't have time to dwell on it as Y/n giggled slightly

"It's alright..." 

The silence settled once more between them before Freed asked somewhat quietly.

"How badly are you injured?" His voice was so quiet that Y/n hardly heard him however, she just caught what he said and looked up at him.

"Not too badly, all thing's considered. Some of the others came out so much worse. One of my ribs is apparently cracked but it will heal," 

She didn't miss the look of anguish that crossed his face as he heard this however, she didn't mention it, holding out her hand towards him.

"Come on, let's go back inside," She spoke as the rune mage took her hand, following quietly behind her.

Once back inside, Y/n turned around again, suddenly remembering something she was supposed to mention.

"I think I might've found another clue about these notes," 

The rune mage nodded and Y/n led them over to a table to discuss it. Once seated, Y/n began explaining her findings from the other day.

"I managed to translate the notes. But the other day, when I was late back, I had a dream. The guild was abandoned but there was one guy who was talking to me about the notes. He mentioned something about remembering what they told me and then I saw the hotel room the night I went on that mission. I managed to remember some of the runes on the wall and when I translated them, they spelt out an address," She paused for a moment and Freed nodded for her to continue. "I'm not sure if It's somewhere in Magnolia; 'Thirteen Sage Street', have you heard of it?"

Freed shook his head

"It doesn't sound familiar. I'd have to look it up,"

Y/n nodded and continued

"I was planning to go there tonight...but obviously with everything that's happened, I think it's best to wait," 

The rune mage's eyes widened and he asked incredulously

"You were going to go alone?" Hesitantly, The H/c mage nodded and Freed sighed, taking a deep breath before continuing "I never thought I'd say this but I'm glad what happened happened. Anything could have happened if you went alone, You should know this by now, we're here to help you, you just need to come to us,"

Y/n avoided his gaze as she added quietly

"The other day I went to another town to find that book...I wasn't really around Magnolia...I'm sorry, I should have told you..." 

Freed was silent for a moment before sighing.

"I kind of already knew...Or I assumed at least. You can ask us for help you know, don't think you have to do everything on your own. We're here to help you...I want you to see that...but I guess now's not the time...Did anything bad happen..."

Silence settled between them and Freed looked up at the H/c girl who pointedly looked away, not answering the question until Freed asked again.

"Y/n?"

"There was a group...they wanted the book...I don't know why...I managed to get away though..." 

Freed stared in disbelief and shook his head.

"Next time, tell us. Tell me. Please. I know what happened today wasn't ideal but I don't want you getting hurt...Please..."

The H/c girl felt guilt well up in her and felt the realisation hit her full force. Her decisions to do everything alone were not only hurting her but also the people around her. Looking down, she spoke quietly

"I'm sorry....I...I guess I never really considered how this would affect you...or anyone else..." 

Freed reached out to take Y/n's hand and gently squeezed it, giving her a small smile.

"Of course it would affect us...As much as you try to deny it, you are a part of this guild, and people here care for you..." Freed explained "And I want you to tell me when you go to places like this...I want to help..."

Y/n made brief eye contact with him and gave a small smile, speaking quietly

"I will tell you," She glanced away again before Freed stood up abruptly, startling Y/n.

The rune mage held a hand out again before explaining.

"Let's go, it's been a long day, we should get going,"

Y/n nodded and took his hand, following him out of the guild and the rune mage began leading them a different way than usual, much to the confusion of Y/n.

"Freed? Where are we going?" She asked, worry evident in her eyes. The rune mage looked towards her with an apologetic look and explained.

"I thought we could walk a different way tonight. There's another route which is more scenic." 

Y/n nodded hesitantly but followed without argument down the rugged path Freed showed her. The trees loomed overhead and made the darkness even harder to see through, however, every now and then, the H/c mage would catch a glimpse of the stars in between the branches, the sight acting as reassurance. She silently reached down and took Freed's hand in her own and the rune mage turned to her, surprise clear on his face.

She didn't say anything, simply giving him a smile and continuing walking, allowing him to lead the way.

They walked in silence and soon enough reached the darkened house, entering and getting ready for bed quietly.

It was as Y/n laid down to sleep that she thought about the events of the day.

Things weren't perfect.

They couldn't even be considered great.

But things would be okay.

With that thought, she allowed her eyes to slip closed, falling asleep within minutes, despite the pain that still thrummed through her body.

 

 


	24. 24 ▫ Planning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: So...uh...I'm alive...hehe.I would like to say a massive apology for abandoning this fic for like...a month, I was only planning to take a week off updates as I was away and then when I got back I just gave up? I guess. And since thenI've started my second year of college and its literal hell soI'm just ugh...But I'm feeling a lot better about this fic and about writing in general after having a break from it so that good. I feel like I was writing so much over the summer trying to get these chapters written that I just burnt myself out so yeah, lets maybe not do that again.
> 
> But anyway, about this fic, I'm hoping to get back to weekly updates but I can't guarantee what day they'll be on. It will be either Friday night, Saturday or Sunday but it kind of depends on whether I'm busy. Other than that, I've sort of merged two chapters into one and I'm thinking of scrapping another chapter I planned as it seems a little excessive so that means I'm expecting to have maybe 34/35 chapters, I'm not 100% sure yet though. 
> 
> But annyyyywaayyy enough of me talking, I'm sure people just want to read this update after this long so I hope everyone enjoys this chapter~

As soon as Y/n awoke the next day, she was greeted by Freed who seemed eager to start planning a mission to visit the address Y/n had found. They quickly got ready and ate before heading to the guild, spotting Evergreen and Bixslow sat at a table waiting for them.

Evergreen noticed them first as they approached and asked once they were in earshot

"Freed, what's this about going on a mission? You didn't explain anything to us,"

The two of them took a seat opposite and Freed began explaining to his teammates

"One of the notes that Y/n got, it has an address on it when she translated it," He paused for a moment and Y/n took over

"I was going to go on my own the other day to check it out but with everything that happened....well I didn't really have time. Then when I mentioned it to Freed he convinced me to go with you guys,"

"Sounds like fun baby," Bixslow grinned before Evergreen asked

"Where is it?"

"We're not sure yet, Thirteen Sage Street, have you ever heard of it?"

They both shook their heads in response and Freed nodded, standing up from where he sat as Y/n followed his lead.

"We'll find out where it is and come and tell you," The H/c mage spoke as they headed towards the library.

Once in the library, they quickly found an atlas containing maps from all around Fiore, opening it to look through the index. After coming back empty-handed, they both sighed, glancing towards each other and accepting their fate, opening the book to its first page and scanning the map for any similar addresses.

"Of course it couldn't just be easy for once," The H/c mage sighed, Freed nodding in agreement.

They read quietly, eyes scanning the pages for anything that could be the right place and after almost half an hour, Y/n finally pointed something out on the map, elbowing the rune mage to get his attention.

"Could this be it? It seems rather far away though....."

Freed leaned over to look at the map, seeing where Y/n was pointing and humming.

"It's the same name...I guess we can't be sure but it's the best guess we've got," Freed nodded "Lotus Town...I've been on a couple of missions there, it's about three and a half hours on the train,"

Freed flicked the page over to ensure they hadn't missed anything and a look of concern appeared on his face as a small piece of paper lay flattened inside the book.

"Should we go and tell the others?" Y/n asked, glancing at the rune mage when he remained silent.

"You might want to see this..." 

The rune mage held out the piece of paper to her and Y/n took it, her eyes widening in surprise.

Another note.

 

       

 

It felt as if her heart had stopped for a moment as her eyes scanned the note, trying to remember the symbols and decode it.

"Do you know what it says?" Freed asked after a moment of silence and Y/n regretfully shook her head.

"I...Don't know..." She frowned "We don't have time to decode it now though, we need to get to that address soon before whatever we're supposed to find is gone..."

The rune mage nodded with a small frown, casting one last glance at the note as Y/n folded it up and put it away. Freed stood up and moved to put the book back where they had found it and Y/n stood to leave as well.

As she followed Freed out of the library, she felt a strange sense of foreboding, making her chest tighten in what she could only assume was anxiety. It was confusing and she wasn't sure why the feeling had all of a sudden washed over her but she tried her best to push it down, faking a smile as they returned to the table where Evergreen and Bixslow sat.

"Did you find it?" Evergreen asked as they sat down opposite them. Both Y/n and Freed nodded and Evergreen gave a knowing glance towards Freed, much to the confusion of Y/n.

"It took a while but yeah, we found it. We think. It's in Lotus Town," Freed explained to his teammates.

"So when are we going?" Bixslow leaned in closer.

"It's getting a bit late today, and everyone is most likely still tired from the other day, I say we leave it a week or so," Freed suggested, not missing the way Y/n looked at him in disbelief.

"You're not being serious, right?" The H/c girl asked, Freed nodding in confusion. "If we leave it that long, whatever is there might be gone! We can't risk it, we need all the clues we can get right now,"

The rune mage paused for a moment before deciding it was best to not argue with Y/n, nodding somewhat hesitantly before turning back to his teammates.

"Is that alright with you?"

The two nodded and Freed mirrored their response.

"If we plan everything tonight, we can set off tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we shouldn't have to stay overnight, we should be able to get back late tomorrow night,"

"Do we have any idea what we're looking for here?" Evergreen asked cautiously and Y/n exchanged a glance with Freed.

"We're not sure...But it must be important...otherwise, why would it be written in those ancient runes..." Y/n explained

"Okay, so we need to get there as early as possible, Say if we meet at the train station at seven o clock?"

Upon receiving nods from his teammates, the rune mage agreed.

"Alright, so we'll see you tomorrow," Freed finished, standing up with Y/n following "We should probably be going,"

After exchanging goodbyes with his teammates, they left, heading back to Freed's house in comfortable silence and after reaching the house, they entered, flicking the lights on and entering. Just as Freed moved to enter the kitchen, he felt Y/n's hand on his wrist and turned back to the H/c mage.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, confusion filling his features.

The H/c girl nodded but didn't release Freed's wrist, looking away from him.

It was silent for a moment before Y/n explained

"Thank you...for helping...I really appreciate it....and I'm sorry for worrying you...all the times I went alone..."

The rune mage gave a small smile and removed Y/n's hand from his wrist, taking it within his own.

"That's what we do, you don't need to do everything alone, you have Fairy tail now,"

"It's strange...I never thought people would...Nevermind...." The H/c mage was mumbling now but Freed still heard, urging her to continue

"You never thought people would what?"

After giving the rune mage a look of confusion, she gave a small smile and continued.

"I just never thought people would actually worry about me going somewhere alone," She explained "I'm still not used to people caring, or even knowing I exist,"

The rune mage seemed taken aback and he looked at Y/n's face, watching her facial expression change from one of slight sadness into a small smile.

"But I've got you now, and the rest of Fairy Tail,"

Nodding in response, Freed added 

"And we definitely care, Y/n. We...I don't want you to get hurt..."

With that, the silence settled around them again and the two gave each other bashful smiles as they moved away from each other to get ready for bed.

Y/n emerged from the bathroom, approaching the rune mages bedroom where the door was slightly ajar and seeing Freed sat on the side of the bed. He turned to look at her as she entered and she asked quietly.

"C..can I stay with you..?"

Surprise showed on Freed's face before he nodded, gesturing for Y/n to come in.

She entered the room, closing the door behind her and made her way over to sit next to Freed. She didn't lie down, much to the confusion of the rune mage however, she spoke a moment later.

"Do you ever wonder if this whole thing is worth it?"

When she didn't continue, Freed urged her

"What do you mean?"

The H/c girl took a deep breath

"It just seems like...anyone could do this...so why me? I've not done much to help at all really,"

Freed glanced at her and thought before answering.

"Maybe not now...but soon...We need you to free the town...We just need to make sure you're prepared beforehand,"

He moved to take Y/n's hand within his own, looking straight into her eyes

"Even if you didn't help, it doesn't matter. It means we got to meet you, that's definitely a bonus,"

The H/c mage giggled slightly and squeezed Freed's hand.

"That's so cheesy," 

They both laughed and with that, they both lay down to sleep, Y/n feeling a lot better than she did before

 


	25. 25 ▫ Thirteen Sage Street

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n:...So much for weekly updates again...My only excuse is that I've been redecorating but like...I also forgot whoops...Hopefully, this makes up for it, I hope you all enjoy this somewhat shitty chapter :)))))

Y/n awoke to the early morning sunlight flooding into the room from a gap in between the curtains. Confusion filled her head as she tried to remember why she was in Freed's bed again, looking over to see the rune mage with his hair fanning out on the pillow behind him. Sunlight lit up his pale face and she felt the urge to reach out and touch his face however, she managed to restrain herself, not wanting to wake him up. Luckily, she noticed his eyes flickering open too a moment later, turning to look at her with a small smile.

"We should probably get going," The H/c mage suggested, Freed nodding in agreement before they both began preparing for the day ahead.

They arrived at the train station relatively early, waiting on the platform their train was leaving from for Evergreen and Bixslow. When the other two arrived, the group boarded the train, sitting down in one of the compartments before Freed pulled out a map with various lines drawn on it.

"There's a couple of ways we could get there from the train station. This one takes slightly longer but there are more shortcuts down dirt paths, the other route sticks to the roads," The rune mage began explaining "I think it's probably best to stick to the roads, we never know if someone might be waiting to attack, down a shortcut there won't be many escape routes if we need them,"

The rest of the team nodded in agreement and Y/n continued

"From what we found, there's only one entrance to the address so we can't surround it and go in different ways. It's also quite isolated, there's a couple of houses within maybe 200 metres but none directly next to it. We need to be prepared if anything does happen,"

"We're going to set up runes beforehand if we can and stop anyone inside from leaving and anyone outside from coming in," Freed added

"That is if there is anyone there, "Evergreen pointed out, to which both Y/n and Freed nodded.

"We don't know what's going to happen so we want to be prepared for anything,"

 

The train pulled up in the station in Lotus town a couple of hours later. They had planned everything that could possibly happen and set off walking, following the map which Freed carried.

The roads twisted and turned as they walked until they reached a long country road. As they walked further and further down the lane, they saw minimal houses and a chill blew through the air, creating an eerie atmosphere. Luckily, it wasn't long until the address came into view. A tall, gothic-looking building, black paint and tall arched windows decorating the front. Y/n felt a nauseating wave of deja vu wash over her at the sight, the feeling not disappearing even as they continued walking. When they were closer to the building, Freed and Y/n began writing runes around the building and the surrounding land. The H/c mage tried to use the ancient runes she had been diligently learning, putting them to use for the first time with some difficulty. She wasn't sure if they were completely secure however, alongside Freed's own runes, there was a high possibility of success.

Upon finishing the runes, they nodded to the other two mages and the group continued their journey up to the front of the house. Freed threw a concerned glance towards Y/n as they got closer to the building, seeing her face looking incredibly pale as they paused outside the door.

"Y/n?" When the H/c mage turned to look at him, he saw the look of apprehension on her face "Are you alright?" 

Y/n nodded quickly and gave a small smile

"We should go in," 

The door was slightly ajar and Freed stepped forwards to push it open, Y/n following after him and Evergreen and Bixslow entering last. As they crossed the threshold, Y/n's foot caught on something and she tripped, throwing her arms out to catch herself only to fall into Freed's back.

Her eyes widened as memories flooded into her head

the building, the stumbling, it all made sense. This must have been the place she had seen the first time Freed had used his dark écriture; fear on her.  If she was right then...

The door slammed closed behind them, making her jump as she spun around, sensing the hooded figures surrounding them before she saw them.

"Watch out!" She shouted as they were surrounded by people, magic attacks being sent towards them as they all took a fighting stance.

"What the hell?" A confused shout came from Bixslow as they were ambushed by the unexpected figures.

"Look out," Freed warned as they began fighting back. 

Y/n tried to ignore the guilt that welled up inside her as she thought about how it was her idea to come here however, she was distracted by an attack sent towards her by a couple of the figures.

"Black magic: Shadow ball!" The darkness flew towards the people however one of them was quick to send another attack, the two magic attacks hitting each other and dissipating into thin air before another person attacked, this time sending arrows made of ice towards her. 

Ice make magic. Interesting.

Taking a different course of action, the H/c mage moved closer to the three mages, pulling out the daggers strapped to her thighs and catching them off guard by swinging a fist towards one of them before swinging her arm around, the dagger her in her hand catching one of the mage's arms. Another appeared behind her and she spun round to knee them in the stomach, quickly throwing another magic attack whilst he was down.

She briefly caught sight of Freed fighting, the rue mages right eye glowing deep purple as many of the figures collapse to the floor in pain from his dark écriture spells.

She could hear Evergreen and Bixslow too, however, she didn't have time to spot them as she sensed another person behind her, letting her magic swirl around her hand and her dagger as she spun around, swinging the knife towards them. She wasn't expecting for the figure to manage to avoid her attack, turning it around against her as they grabbed her wrist, avoiding her attempt to slash them with her other dagger as they knocked the knife out of the wrist they had grabbed. She looked around frantically, trying to find some way out of the current situation and saw Freed finishing off one last hooded figure before looking around, his eyes widening when he spotted her. As much as she struggled, she couldn't seem to get free, despite how many kicks and punches she did manage to land on her captor.

"Y/n!"Freed shouted, anger and fear both evident in his voice however, she could barely hear over the question whispered next to her ear which sent shivers down her spine.

"Where is the book?"

 


	26. 26 ▫ Visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a sudden burst of motivation today to get this fic finished today as I figured I'm so close to the end of it I can do this! But yeah, I think a couple of chapters ago I said I'd planned for 36 chapters but after reviewing my plan for it, it's decreased to 34 chapters. I'm still somewhat ahead with writing chapters so I'm just hoping I can find time at some point to write more and get it done. But anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! :))))))

"Y/n!"

The H/c girl could barely hear Freed's concerned yell over the ringing in her ears upon hearing that one question.

_Where is the book?_

She could see sharp, ruby-red eyes staring straight at her from beneath the hooded cloak that the figure wore and felt frozen as they bore deep into her soul. It was only when the figure was thrown back by purple runes flying towards them that she snapped out of her daze, seeing the figure curled over in pain, clutching at their chest where there were purple runes inscribed.

"Come on!" Freed shouted, grabbing Y/n's wrist as he followed after Evergreen and Bixslow, leaving the house and the people in it.

When they were back outside, Y/n tried to pry her wrist away from Freed's hand, protesting

"We need to look around! What if there's something important there?"

The rune mage looked at her in disbelief

"Don't you see? It was a trap! We can't go and look around, in case you didn't notice, they were trying to kill you in there!"

Y/n looked away and nodded, beginning to walk to catch up to Evergreen and Bixslow.

"You're right, sorry," 

The rune mage sighed before speaking again.

"Wait, Y/n," The H/c mage paused for a moment and Freed walked closer to her, gently taking her hand.

"I'm sorry...I just don't want you to get hurt," The rune mage began "I'm sure you know by now but someone clearly wants you for something, I don't want to lose you...and in there...they came very close to hurting you..."

Y/n let out a long breath and nodded.

"I know," She gently squeezed Freed's hand with a small smile "It's ust...incredibly frustrating...it's like we take one step forward and then 10 back. Anytime we find something that could be useful, it turns out to be a trap or it's just pointless...." she looked down at the floor and Freed moved to gently wrap his arms around her.

"I know...hopefully it will all be over soon..."

They stayed like that for a moment before Y/n pulled away, looking around and spotting Evergreen and Bixslow waiting nearby doing a terrible job of acting like they weren't watching them.

"We should probably go, huh?" Y/n gave a small smile and Freed nodded as they began walking towards their teammates, staying on guard in case they were being followed by any of the hooded figures.

When they were back on the train again, Y/n decided to bring up what the figure had asked her when they were attacked.

"He asked where the book was...I'm starting to think that this book is more important than we first thought..."

The rest of the group seemed to think about it for a moment before Freed spoke.

"The notes are all in this language...and it's an ancient rune language...could it be that the runes around the town are in this language maybe?"

"Hmm...maybe...but then why would other people be trying to find the book...is there more than one guild trying to undo those runes?"

"There could be, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the request just said we needed to find you so other guilds shouldn't still be trying to," Freed seemed to think for a moment before continuing "It could possibly be the dark guild responsible for this?"

Y/n hummed before speaking quietly

"I remembered something just before we walked into the building..."

All eyes focussed on her as she took a deep breath and continued.

"I saw what was going to happen in there..."

Silence filled the train carriage before Fred asked quietly, raising an eyebrow

"You knew?"

The H/c mages eyes widened as she realised what she had said, frantically trying to explain.

"I only remembered when we went inside! I swear...Weeks ago when we were training, you used dark écriture; fear and I had a vision sort of thing..." She noticed Freed's hard stare on her and continued "I saw the address and then I was inside...I saw the people closing in...I...I didn't think anything of it at the time but now...It was like a warning..."

She was almost afraid to meet Freed's eyes however, they no longer held the hard stare they had previously and she relaxed slightly.

"That was when you got that second note right?" The rune mage asked, to which Y/n nodded.

"Freed...I..." She looked up and met his eyes, a determined look on her face "I want you to use dark écriture; fear on me again. It might give us more information about the town and the dark guild...please..." 

She knew he would most likely protest however, it was worth a try. And it could really give them important information, surely it was worth a try?

"Y/n...I don't think that's a good idea..." The rune mage avoided her eyes as he answered and Y/n stared insistently at the side of his face. "I don't want to hurt you..." The last part was so quiet it was almost a whisper and Y/n had to strain her ears to hear it.

"You won't." Y/n stated certainly "And if you did, it's for the greater good,"

"Y/n..." Freed's face pulled into and unsure grimace "I don't know..."

"Please?" 

The train carriage was full of tense silence as they waited to see how Freed would respond, three pairs of eyes focussed on him as he sighed and answered quietly.

"Let me think it over...I...can't agree to anything just yet...."

Y/n nodded in contentment. Freed hadn't outright disagreed which was a start. If she reassured him that she would be alright, maybe he would agree.

The train continued rattling down the tracks and screeched to a halt in the station back in Magnolia. Everyone stood and gathered their things, heading back to Fairy Tail, determined not to let what happened bother them.

They were called over by Master Makarov when they entered the guildhall and he began questioning them about what had happened and whether they had found anything. As they explained, Y/n had a thought and quickly added at the end of their explanation.

"I had a vision of what was going to happen today a few weeks back when me a Freed were training. He'd used dark écriture; fear on me and I was wondering if maybe doing it again would give us more information," She could see Freed's wide-eyed stare directed to her, however, she ignored it, and continued "Do you think there may be a way to do it which wouldn't harm me?"

Makarov seemed to think for a moment before answering

"I can't guarantee if it would work but if Freed didn't truly want to hurt you, the attack might not work properly but may still give you another vision,"

They all nodded, however, Freed still looked uncertain. Y/n glanced at him and noted the unsure look on his face, reaching over to take his hand and squeeze it gently.

"I promise you won't hurt me," She spoke quietly and Freed took a deep breath before nodding.

"Yeah...I'll do it, but only if you promise you won't let me hurt you. We need to think of some way for you to signal for me to stop though,"

Y/n nodded and looked between Freed and Master Makarov in silent agreement.

"So we're doing it?" She asked, receiving a nod from Freed.

"Let's do it,"

 


	27. 27 ▫ Dark Écriture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm quite excited to finish this fic in all honesty. It's been somewhat fun to write but it's exciting to think that I can move onto other things soon. Anyway, enjoy this chapter :)))))

With Freed's agreement, Y/n grinned at the rune mage as he gestured for them to go outside to the training area used by guild members. Evergreen and Bixslow followed closely behind and once they were outside, they were soon joined by Master Makarov and Mirajane. As they walked, Y/n spoke quietly to Freed.

"I promise you, I'll be alright," She reached to grasp his hand and squeezed gently, receiving a small smile from Freed

"I know you will be. I can't help but worry though...If you get hurt...If I hurt you...again..." The rune mage railed off and Y/n gave a reassuring smile.

"You won't. I know it,"

It was hard to argue further when Y/n sounded so convinced and so, Freed gave her hand one last squeeze before moving to stand opposite her.

"Now Freed, send the attack towards Y/n. It will automatically weaken because you don't actually want to hurt her. Y/n, you should still be aware enough to tell Freed if it's too much," Master Makarov explained, to which the two mages nodded.

Freed began focussing on his attack, drawing his sword to send the runes flying towards Y/n. who managed to only flinch a little. Of course she was afraid, who wouldn't be? However, she trusted Freed and she knew, somewhere inside her she knew that she would have another vision and would find out more information.

She looked down and saw the purple runes inscribed on her chest before glancing up at Freed, seeing the look of worry on his face and giving what she hoped was a reassuring smile before fear took over her, filling her mind and body as vivid images flashed through her mind.

_Darkness surrounded her. At first, she figured maybe she had gotten it wrong and that she wasn't going to see anything or gain any new information however light soon began flooding her field of vision as her eyes blinked open. The light was almost blinding as it grew brighter and brighter before disappearing completely. She blinked a couple of times to adjust her eyes to the drastic difference in lighting and what she saw did nothing but confuse her._

_She was in a building of some sort, from what she could see, it looked like someone's house, with family portraits decorating the wall opposite her. She looked down and saw that her body was translucent, lifting a hand to reach out and touch the nearest object to her. Upon establishing that she could, in fact, touch things, she began walking around the seemingly abandoned house, curiosity filling her._

_Finding no useful information, she headed towards the door, pulling it open ever so slightly and peering out of the small gap. She saw no signs of life and so carefully, quietly made her way out of the room, heading straight for the set of stairs she could see. Creeping quietly, she descended the stairs, constantly looking out for people who may or may not be able to see her._

_The lighting downstairs was dim and made everything look dingy and depressing however, she ignored that, keeping an eye out for anything that may be of use._

_After doing a couple of laps of each room and finding nothing of use, she headed to what she assumed was the front door, again being careful about how much noise she made._

_The street outside was abandoned, and it looked like it had been that way for a while now. Broken glass was scattered across the pavement, spilling onto the road and other rubbish including cans and cardboard littered the streets. She saw no signs of life and began walking down the street cautiously. She wasn't exactly sure how this vision worked and so, she wasn't sure if people could see her, or if they could attack her, therefore, it was better for her to be careful. For all she knew, if she got injured, the vision may end before she could find something of use._

_Throwing her head back to glance up at the sky, she noticed an eerie purple glow which seemed to radiate from a couple of streets down. Attempting to follow it, she walked through winding streets and dark alleyways, her hands always resting on the daggers still strapped to her thighs. A sudden thought made her pause and she tried to use her magic, finding herself unable to and hoping that she wouldn't get attacked._

_After getting lost a couple of times following a few wrong turns, she finally saw what was creating the eerie glowing. At first, she only spotted it in between some houses, however, as she made her way through one last alleyway, she saw it in its full glory._

_A seemingly neverending barrier of purple glowing runes stood before her, tall and intimidating and glowing that same dark purple. Upon closer inspection, she realised, they weren't just ordinary runes. They were the ones from the book. She spun around, quickly observing her surrounding as realisation dawned upon her._

_She was in the town captured by the dark guild._

_The runes they had used were the ones in the book._

_That was why so many people were trying to stop her from getting the book._

_It all made sense now._

_She spotted a dark figure, hidden in the shadows nearby, watching her, waiting. Neither of them moved, neither of them spoke however, she immediately saw their face curl into a grin and frantically looked around, trying to work out what they were grinning about._

_She saw it almost immediately._

_The town was slowly being consumed by vicious flames, engulfing buildings and filling the air with the disgusting smell of smoke. Her eyes widened and she felt bile rising in her throat. She had to get out of here. The smell slowly changed to that of burning flesh and she felt a wave of nausea wash over her, making her collapse to her knees before the dizziness became too much and everything began to go dark. The last thing she saw was a strangely familiar face staring at her from the hooded figure before she lost consciousness..._

 

Y/n had collapsed to her knees almost as soon as the spell took effect and Freed found himself sick with worry watching her. It pained him that he was unable to do anything however, he had to keep his focus on the spell, or Y/n may not find out anything at all.

Evergreen had knelt down beside the H/c mage and was keeping her upright and Freed couldn't help but feel somewhat useless due to his inability to help.

Everything was somewhat calm for a moment, there was the occasional twitch of an arm from Y/n but other than that, she was completely still. The rune mage managed to take a deep, calming breath, however, it was futile as he saw Y/n go completely limp in Evergreen's hold.

At that point, he didn't care whether Y/n had found anything out, ending the spell and rushing over to her as Bixslow, Mirajane and Master Makarov also crowded around her.

"She'll be okay, it will just be the exhaustion taking over," Master Makarove explained as Freed scooped the H/c mage up into his arms"Take her to the infirmary, if she gets any worse, we'll call Porlyusica,"

The rune mage nodded and quickly made his way inside, his teammates following him as he laid the H/c girl down on one of the infirmary beds before collapsing into a chair beside the bed.

"Do you think she saw anything?" Bixslow asked, to which Freed nodded.

"Definitely...And I don't think it was god, whatever it was,"

Silence filled the room and Evergreen and Bixslow also pulled out chairs to sit down as they all waited for Y/n to wake up, hoping that the vision she had just had wasn't too bad.

 

 


	28. 28 ▫ What Did You See?

It was early morning by the time Y/n began waking up. Freed had stayed beside her unconscious body since she had collapsed, despite the exhaustion that was running through his body. He noticed the tiny movements of her hands, glancing up at her face and noticing her E/c eyes confusedly staring at him. He took her hand in his own, giving a small smile as Y/n's eyes widened. Concern filled him however, it dissipated as the H/c mage spoke quietly.

"The town...I saw the town. And I was inside it...the runes are the ones from the books, it makes sense! That's why people were trying to stop me from finding the book..." She paused for a moment before her face paled and she added "They set it on fire...They set the town on fire...we need to hurry!"

The rune mage gently pushed her to lie down again when Y/n tried to scramble out of the bed. He took her hand again and gave a small squeeze.

"You need to rest. If you're worried about it, we can send a team out to check but you're not going anywhere,"

"Freed...there was someone familiar there....but I can't work out who it was..." The distress was clear in Y/n's voice and Freed reached out to brush a strand of H/c hair behind her ear.

"We'll figure it out, I promise. You need to rest and then we can plan a mission to the town, okay? But only when you're fully rested, you still look awfully pale,"

The H/c mage nodded and lay back down before frowning.

"You haven't slept," She stated, staring directly at Freed who looked away and spoke firmly.

"That doesn't matter, now sleep," 

"That's hypocritical," Y/n countered, moving to the side of the bed and lifting up the duvet as an offering.

"Please, don't make this difficult Y/n,"

"I'm not doing anything, you're making it difficult by not sleeping,"

The room was filled with silence as Y/n stared at Freed with a challenging look in her eyes, grinning in victory as the rune mage sighed, shedding his coat and shoes and joining her.

"You need to look after yourself too..." Y/n pouted, finally settling down and snuggling closer to the rune mage who laid his arm across her waist.

"I'm not the one who passed out earlier," Freed pointed out and Y/n frowned at him.

"Still," She protested, getting a small smile from Freed.

"Come on, you should rest," 

This time, she didn't argue that Freed also needed rest, allowing her eyes to slip closed as she enjoyed the rune mages warmth and tried to forget about everything that had happened.

 

The next morning, they were rudely awoken by a laughing Bixslow and Evergreen who stood trying to contain her grin at the sight of them cuddled up together.

The sun was bright enough to shine through the blinds and make the room light enough to see as both mages blinked sleepily, trying to adjust to the bright light.

"You're both feeling better I see," Bixslow teased lightly, to which Freed sent a glare towards him.

"So did you see anything that might help?" Evergreen sat down next to the bed and Y/n nodded.

"The runes around the town are the ones from the book, that's why Freed and Levy couldn't read them when they went. Somone also set the town on fire...so we need to hurry,"

"But, you still need to rest," Freed countered and Y/n huffed in response.

"Can we at least go to the guildhall to plan how we're going to go about this?" The H/c mage asked, already trying to stand up.

"I'm guessing you'll do it even if I say no," Freed said, following after Y/n as they headed into the guildhall.

They crowded around a table and Freed went to grab a map of Fiore to plan how they would approach.

Y/n tried to recall if she had seen any street signs or anything which could indicate whereabouts in the town she had been, however, the only thing she was able to recall was the wicked look on a familiar face as the town began burning.

Freed suggested that they might be better getting a larger group together and approaching from different points in smaller groups however, Y/n disagreed.

"I don't think we should actually try and do anything just yet...We need to go to work out what the layout is and where there are guards and then we can plan around that to remove the runes,"

After hearing her explanation, she received a chorus of agreements.

"A bigger group would probably be  a good idea when we go to remove the runes but for now maybe not,"

They planned their route, along with a backup route, just in case before running the plan past Master Makarov to ensure it was okay. With his approval, they arranged to set off early the next day and decided to hang around the guild for a while.

"I can not wait until this whole thing is over," Y/n sighed, her head resting on the table.

"What will you do after? Will you stay in the guild?" Evergreen asked and both Y/n and Freed froze.

"I...dont know...I haven't really thought about it, I don't think I can stay here..."

"You still don't trust people here..." Freed spoke so quietly that Y/n almost didn't hear.

"Freed...I...I don't think I can..." The H/c mage looked away "Even if I wanted to..."

The atmosphere had turned tense and so, Evergreen tried to change the conversation topic to something happier which worked. Before they even knew it, the sky outside had darkened and they were preparing to head home to rest before leaving again tomorrow.

 

Rain poured down, pattering against the windows the next morning. Both Y/n and Freed stared out of the window whilst they ate breakfast, watching the rainfall and hoping that it would clear up whilst they were travelling.  
It was a mad rush to get ready and arrive at the train station on time and the two mages only just made it on time before the doors to the train slid closed. Searching the train for their teammates, they found them sitting in a carriage, looking equally as wet and cold as them.  
"We chose a good day for this, huh?" Y/n tried to joke, Bixslow joining in in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere.  
"A bit of rain never killed anyone," The seith mage joked.

  
After running through what they would do once more, the train pulled into the next station and they all gathered their things to begin the half-hour walk to the next town, the one currently trapped by the dark guild.  
Rugged countryside stretched it before them with trees lining the uneven roads. Rain splashed on the ground and soaked them all as they trecked to the nearby town, Evergreen complaining the majority of the way and Bixslow trying and failing to cheer everyone up until an eerie purple glow came into view.  
"There it is," Y/n spoke in a solemn voice, receiving agreements from the other three mages. They began putting their plan into action,  splitting up into twos and approaching from different sides before they all split up more, each individually getting closer. The purple grew brighter as they got closer, small letters finally coming into view, obscuring any view of the actual town. Y/n spotted one of the same hooded figures from the previous day stood on the path she was meant to take, forcing her to change their plan a bit and go a different way and she  quickly looked around, spotting Freed vaguely in the distance, using a hand signal they had previously agreed upon to tell him she was okay. After receiving the same signal from the rune mage, she nodded, steeling herself and approaching cautiously, now able to make out the individual symbols. She couldn't remember all of the symbols still and so, there were gaps which she couldn't fill in, however, she managed to understand a large amount of the text, repeating it to herself over and over to try and memorise it.

She closed her eyes as she silently chanted the paragraph of text to herself however, a cunning laugh interrupted her train of thought and her eyes snapped open, her head spinning towards the sound and seeing another hooded figure making its way towards her.

Y/n felt chills run down her spine and found herself frozen where she stood as she heard the awfully familiar voice speak

"It seems like those useless fairies have done their job then," Y/n glared at the figure at the unwanted nickname. "Who was it again? Makarov? And Freed right? Yes, that's it,"

The H/c mage had to force the words out of her throat as she hissed

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh? They didn't tell you? I was the one who asked them to find you, my precious Y/n. And oh how well they've done their job. Here I was thinking it would be hard for them to lure you here,"

Y/n felt a wave of dizziness wash over her and bent down, clutching her head as a sharp pain shot through her skull.

_Makarov...Freed...They lured her here...for this...this person....this..._

"You don't remember who I am Y/n?" The hooded figure tilted their covered face, speaking in a mocking tone before reaching up to slowly pull their hood down.

Forcing her head upwards, she saw a familiar face grinning wickedly down at her, feeling her blood race cold as bile rose in her throat.

She made herself stand up on shaky legs, glaring at the now revealed face.

"You...I thought you were...."

Stumbling back, she launched an attack towards the figure before spinning around and setting off running, tripping over her own feet in her desperation. She needed to get away. Away from him. Away from Freed. Away from Fairy Tail. She couldn't trust them anymore. She would have to do this on her own from now on. As she passed the place she had agreed to meet her teammates she felt a small surge of guilt however she pushed it down and continued running.

She would be back. She would free the town, however, she would do it alone...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad some people seem to be enjoying this fic but I feel like it has become extremely generic. I swear every Freed fanfiction is near enough the same and I've just jumped on the bandwagon....oh well...


	29. 29 ▫ Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy enjoy this late-night update from me, I should probably be getting to sleep now but yeyeye I thought I'd upload this first whoop

Freed had long since lost sight of Y/n and could feel worry building up inside him. Acting on his gut instinct, he retreated, sending a stream of runes into the sky to signal to his teammates to retreat as well before making his way quickly towards their designated meeting spot. He was soon met by Evergreen and Bixslow who both looked somewhat shaken up at his decision to retreat but otherwise glad to see him, however, a quick scan of the immediate area told them that Y/n was nowhere to be seen. The rune mage tried to squash down the wave of uncertainty that built inside him however, he couldn't help but have a bad feeling about the situation. Y/n hadn't used her signal to tell them she was in trouble, so where was she?

"Should we go and look for her?" Bixslow suggested, noticing Freed's uncertainty, to which the rune mage shook his head.

"She's not used her signal. We're just going to have to hope she's on her way here,"

The group settled to wait for the H/c mage, each of them growing more uncertain the longer the silence remained.

 

The H/c mage could only remember one other time in her life she had run this fast. It was a long time ago and thunder had rumbled threateningly in the distance as she ran away from the only place she had ever known as home. She shook her head as she ran, willing herself not to think about that dark time in her life. She had to get away from Freed and the rest of the team, she had to get away from Fairy Tail. She could barely feel her legs with how far she had run but she didn't care. The train station was visible in the distance and she was determined to get there and get home, no matter what it takes.

People rushed to move out of her way as she ran through the streets and she soon found herself stood on the train platform, desperately trying to catch her breath as she waited for the next train to Magnolia.

Almost as soon as the train pulled in, she boarded, collapsing onto one of the seats and pulling out a scrap of paper from her pocket and a pen. Wracking her brain, she tried desperately to remember the wall of runes she had seen, scribbling down as many runes as she could remember as well as jotting down the translations she could work out. 

The train rattled and jolted, making it harder for her to write, however, she persisted and by the time the train pulled into the station, she had worked out most of what the runes had said.

As quickly and discreetly as possible, she made her way off the train, setting off at a fast pace towards Freed's house to grab her stuff quickly. Keeping her head down with her hood pulled up over her head, she tried to avoid being recognised as she darted through the streets of Magnolia however, she should have known she wouldn't be so lucky. Just as she rounded the corner to go towards Freed's house, she missed seeing the person in front of her, only noticing him when she fell back from the force of hitting them.

Frustrated, she picked herself back up again, ignoring the hand that was held out towards her in favour of glaring up at the person in front of her, pausing as realisation dawned upon her.

"Laxus?" Her voice was riddled with confusion which the lightning dragon slayer mirrored in his own expression.

"Where's Freed?"Laxus' voice was serious and only served to throw Y/n off even more.

"I don't know..." She lied, hoping the lightning mage would drop the subject. She could feel anxiety coursing through her veins the longer she stood where she was. There was a high possibility that Freed or someone else could come and find her. The rest of the team might have told someone in the guild she had disappeared and they had now sent out a large scale search party. Her thoughts were interrupted however by Laxus' voice again.

"Look kid, I don't have time for this, I've found something about that town and I need to tell Freed as soon as possible,"

The H/c girl took this opportunity to catch the lightning mage off guard, pushing past him and setting off running. She didn't doubt that he could easily catch her up however, she hoped she would gain enough of a headstart due to his confusion.

She succeeded and managed to enter Freed's house, slamming the door behind her and resting her back against the wood for a moment, catching her breath before she pushed herself up again, moving around the house and gathering her things and leaving. With the book clutched tightly against her chest as she quietly made her way out the back of the house, making her way down the back streets to avoid being recognised. She pulled her hood up over her head, letting the fabric cover her face.

 

Laxus felt uncertainty grip him as Y/n ran away. Surely something had to have happened for her to be here alone, looking so nervous. Trusting his gut feeling, he made his way down the familiar streets to the guild, taking a deep breath before pushing the doors open.

The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife as every set of eyes turned to him, staring with a mix of anger, confusion and hatred before he had to will himself to break the silence.

"Where's Freed? I've found something about that town he might want to hear...."

A quick explanation from Laxustold them all they needed to know and after gathering a small group to go and look for the H/c mage, A small group gathered around Warren who began using his telepathy to tell the other three mages what they had been told.

 

Freed tried his best not to let the worry get to him however, the longer they sat waiting, the more uncertain he got. Evergreen and Bixslow had been near enough silent too, not knowing what to say to reassure the rune mage and, just as they began to lose hope, they heard Warren's voice sounding worried.

"Freed? Evergreen? Bixslow? Can you hear me?"

"Warren?" A chorus of confused questions sounded and the rune mage stood up from where he sat, pacing back and forth in worry.

"Y/n's back in Magnolia. Laxus ran into her but didn't have a chance to find out where she was going or anything,"

"Wait, Laxus?" The three all spoke in unison.

"Yeah. He found out something about the town that he needed to tell you. They're expecting you to go and free it, apparently. They're planning to attack you. They've got insight on all of your magic types and they're going to use it against you to capture you all, you need to get out of there, now,"

"We've been waiting for Y/n after we sent the signal to retreat but she's in Magnolia...Why...?" Freed spoke quietly to himself

"We're not sure yet...She ran away from Laxus so we've sent a team out to look for her, just get back here as soon as possible,"

With that, the silence returned and Freed allowed a long sigh to escape his mouth before turning to his teammates.

"Well, we best get going huh?"

The other two nodded and they started the trek home with a sense of urgency.

 

 

Y/n found herself walking down another unknown road, her hood partially obscuring her face in case she ran into any guild members. The streets were quiet and she found herself relaxing slightly. Maybe she could get away easier than she thought. She would free the town and would disappear soon after with the hopes that everyone here would soon forget her and stop looking for her. Only, luck could never be on her side.

Pounding footsteps sounded behind her and she turned just in time to see Natsu, Lucy, Erza and Gray rushing towards her with Happy flying closely behind.

"Y/n!" Natsu's voice called out as she turned to start running.

"Y/n why are you running away?" Erza called after her, surprisingly fast for someone wearing layers of armour and the H/c mage soon felt herself being pulled to a stop by a strong grip on her wrist.

"You need to explain to us what on earth is going on," Erza stated, leaving no room for arguments although Y/n still tried to wriggle her arm out of Erza's grip.

"Let me go! I don't have to explain anything!"

"Y/n!" Lucy joined in "We want to help you but you need to tell us what's going on,"

"I don't want your help!" Y/n responded, feeling Gray's hand on her wrist before ice formed, trapping her wrists together.

"I didn't want to do this Y/n but just come back to the guild with us,"

The H/c girl was practically seething as she struggled against the restraints. She started protesting again to no avail and soon found herself outside the guild once more. She felt bile rise in her throat as she was led inside, still trying to find a way to escape as she realised, Laxus had probably told Freed and he was probably on his way back here. Anxiety coursed through her veins as she desperately tried to think of how to get away, coming back with nothing.

There was nothing to do now but sit and wait until her next opportunity to get away, and it appeared it may be sooner than she thought as the doors of the guild swung open, revealing Freed and the rest of the thunder legion.

"Y/n...."

 


	30. 30 ▫ Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh I'm finally writing the last chapter of this, as soon as that's done it's just a case of proofreading each chapter and uploading it! I'm incredibly excited to finish this off and I'm hoping people enjoy the ending of it so watch out for that!

A tense silence filled the guild as Y/n made eye contact with the rune mage, gritting her teeth together to stop herself from confronting Freed right then and there as he began walking towards her, pausing halfway towards her and writing runes with a quick flick of his wrist.  
Y/n saw the glow of purple runes around the perimeter of the guild and felt rage bubbling up inside her. It was just like the day she was brought here only, this time she wouldn't believe their lies. She refused. However, her thoughts were interrupted by Freed's voice  
"Gray you can release her now,"  
The ice make mage complied as the ice around her wrists thawed, leaving her free to stand up from where she sat, a hard glare fixed on Freed.  
"Let. Me. Go," The H/c mage accentuated every word, malice filling her voice however it did nothing to deter Freed who stared back.  
"Why did you leave? Why didn't you send a signal?" The rune mages voice was stern and intimidating however Y/n refused to back down. She subtly began rewriting Freed's runes, making sure to keep her hands hidden as she worked as she answered in disbelief.  
"Why did I leave? How about you explain why you tricked me into coming here?" Rage filled her and although she could see confusion clouding Freeds eyes, she continued "Don't act dumb, I know you were hired to lure me to that town!"   
The runes around the guild glowed as she finished rewriting them and she took her opportunity to push past the rune mage, setting off running whilst writing as quickly as she possibly could.  
"Don't bother following me, Freed,"

As far as Y/n knew, Freed didn't know the ancient language off by heart so she should be able to buy herself some time by using it to replace Freeds runes. Without looking back, she finished the runes and set off back the way she had gone before towards the train station. This was it. She was alone again. And this time it would stay that way. If Freed, one of the nicest people she had ever met couldn't be trusted then who could?  
Shaking her head as if to rid herself of these thoughts, she continued running, her legs aching with the strain as her feet hit the concrete paths repeatedly. The train station came into view and she slowed her pace slightly, her breathing heavy as she entered the station, slowing to a fast walk. The train was due in almost 7 minutes and she found herself bouncing on her heels in anxiousness as she waited, willing it to arrive early and get her back to the town as quickly as possible.

The train pulled into the station and Y/n immediately moved to board the vehicle, taking one last look around her before finding somewhere to sit on the train. This would be the last time she would see this station, at least in the near future. As soon as the town was free she had no reason to come back here. And she didn't plan to. Letting out a long sigh, the exhaustion from today's events began to weigh down on her and she slumped against the window of the train, letting her eyes slip closed as the rocking of the train lulled her into sleep.

 

As soon as Freed noticed what was going on, he rushed to find Levy and look to see whether Y/n had left the book of ancient runes. The H/c mage knew what she was doing, he could give her that. She obviously planned for neither of them being able to undo these runes and used it to her advantage however, they had to get out. They had to find her.

"If you can get us out of here it can't be too hard to track her down using her scent," Laxus tried to reassure the rune mage, ignoring Natsu's enthusiastic agreements. 

Luckily, it appeared that Y/n had left the book in her haste to get away and the two script mages began working on undoing the runes with the help of the book.

It took a while and the rune mage could feel frustration bubbling under his skin however, soon enough the perimeter of the guild glowed purple and the runes surrounding the guild disappeared.

Although Freed was ready to set off on his own, he was stopped by both Laxus grabbing his wrist and by Makarov calling out to the guild.

"We need to be smart about this," Makarov began "There's a high chance she's gone back to the town but we can't be sure. Freed, you go with your team and Laxus and go the same way you went with her earlier, that's the most likely way she will have gone. Team Natsu, I want you to approach from the other side, Levy, you and your team can go as well, in case there are any runes set up, you and Freed are our only options, I'm going to get Porlyusica in case anyone in the town is injured, everyone knows what signals to use to retreat right?" Upon receiving nods of agreement, Makarov gave a weak smile "Let's go then!"

 

 

 

The sun had begun setting when Y/n stepped off the train, following the street-lit paths she had earlier that day, this time with a sense of newfound determination. It was somewhat unnerving walking alone in the darkening town however, she remembered back before she came to Fairy Tail, when she would do everything alone and survived for years without anyone else's help. The thought was reassuring and she set off jogging, hoping to get the job done as soon as possible. The country roads were harder to distinguish from each other in the fading light however, she managed to get the right one and eventually after a long walk found herself standing once more outside the town. The wall of runes seemed eerier at night as the purple glow slightly illuminated the sky as she raised her hand to the wall, touching the letters lightly before stepping back with her eyes closed. She focussed her mind on the runes she had learnt and began rewriting, the task sapping her energy quickly with only determination keeping her going. Doing this whilst tired probably wasn't the best idea however, she gritted her teeth and carried on, getting halfway through before exhaustion began washing over her. Falling to her knees, she squinted up at the text, forcing herself to carry on through tears of frustration however, she heard footsteps approaching and tried to force herself to her feet. Dizziness washed over her as she realised how much of her energy had been sapped, her concentration now near-enough gone as she briefly caught a glimpse of the person's face approaching before her legs gave out beneath her and she collapsed to the floor.

_Him again._


	31. 31 ▫ Caught

The train ride to Lotus town was tense, no one wanting to say anything to break the silence as the train rattled along the tracks. Freed stared out the window, his breathing somewhat faster than usual and his leg bouncing up and down in nervousness. There was nothing that any of them could do to calm him down, after all, he had been the one who knew Y/n the best, he was the one that had been in love with her.

Luckily, the train pulled up to a screeching halt soon enough and the teams began splitting up, following the paths which Makarov had instructed them to and were soon on different paths towards the town. The glow from the runes could be seen in the distance and Freed felt rage burning through him at the thought that something might have happened to the H/c girl. He needed to know what had happened. Her attitude towards them had taken a full 360-degree turn and none of them could be sure why. But he was determined to find out.

He briefly glanced to his side at Levy who was holding the book, trying to familiarize herself with the runes and let out a long sigh, letting his eyes run over the text.

"We'll find her Freed, don't worry," Levy tried to reassure to no avail.

"Yeah...She seemed really angry about something but didn't say what...I don't think she'll want anything to do with me after this,"

The solid script mage tried to change the subject in the hopes of getting Freed's mind away from the negative thoughts.

"Right now we just need to focus on these runes, okay?"

With a weak smile, the rune mage agreed and the group found themselves standing in front of the great wall of runes, the purple glow illuminating their faces. Freed reached out to touch them with a small frown, feeling a strange sense of familiarity from the runes. 

He took his hand away again and glanced back over at the book, matching up the symbols as realisation dawned upon him

"She's already started rewriting them,"

"So she's somewhere nearby?" Levy looked up at the wall of runes with determination "Leave this to me, go and find her,"

"Are you sure?" Freed asked concerned "There might be people patrolling around here, if they see you they'll definitely attack,"

"We'll stay here," Laxus offered, gesturing to himself and Bixslow "You and Ever are probably the fastest if you fly, you'll be able to find her quicker,"

Freed nodded in agreement, writing the runes for his wings with a quick hand movement before setting off, Evergreen following closely behind.

 

  
  


Y/n awoke to a pounding pain in her head, feeling a relentless headache forming behind her eye. Her entire body felt weak and as she tried to lift her hands to rub at her eyes tiredly, she found she was unable to. Metal cuffs were attached to her wrists with chains keeping her restrained which rattled with every small movement. Panic began to settle in and she blinked a couple of times to try and wake herself up more however, a cloud of haziness still lay over her. The room she was in was dark and dingy with a half working light hanging precautiously above her head. Puddles littered the cold stone floor, tinted red with what she desperately hoped was not blood and a layer of dirt covered what was left of the floor. Finally gaining more awareness of her surroundings, her eyes widened. She was trapped. She didn't know where she was. With shaking hands, she tried to focus all of her energy into breaking the cuffs apart only, as she tried to use her magic, where she would usually feel a gathering of energy inside her, she felt nothing. Trying again, this time with more urgency resulted in the same outcome and she released a shaky breath upon realising that she really couldn't use her magic. She was powerless.

"I see you've realised you can't use magic,"

Her head shot up and saw the outline of a figure in the dingy room, the voice somewhat familiar although she couldn't place where from.

"Why am I here?" The H/c mage growled, anger coursing through her veins. A dark chuckle was her only reply for a moment before the same voice spoke deeply.

"You remember who I am, don't you Y/n? I'm sure you can work out why you're here. You left me, Y/n. All on my own. You left me to die," The figure leaned in closer and the H/c mage was ambushed by the putrid smell coming off him "You left me to die...so now, I'm going to return the favour,"

_The H/c mages mind flashed back to the last time she had seen her father. It had been the middle of winter and her father had once again returned home drunk. She hugged her mother tightly as they huddled in a dark corner of the house, hoping they could stay out of sight until her father went to bed._

_If only luck had been on their side._

_"Oh Y/n," The singsong voice sounded through the house and Y/n's mother held her closer, cowering back when the door slid open, flooding the room with light. Her father entered the room and Y/n felt her mother tense behind her as the smell of alcohol flooded the room._

_"There you are," His voice sounded sickeningly sweet as he stumbled closer and closer. The H/c girl could feel her mother's heart rate increase as he approached before she sprang up suddenly, holding Y/n's hand tightly. Shoving past the drunken man, she began running with Y/n in tow however, the man's angry voice echoed behind them._

_"You ungrateful whore!"_

_Y/n tried to turn to look back however, her mother didn't stop and she was dragged along, out the front door which slammed hard behind them._

_Once they were a distance away from the house, her mother turned to Y/n, crouching down to look the small girl in the eyes._

_"You're going to get away from this, Y/n. I don't care what it takes, you will escape,"_

_"Mummy?"_

_"Y/n, promise me...." Her mother reached up, unclipping the necklace around her neck and pressing it into Y/n's palm"Promise me, you'll stay safe,"_

_"But mummy? Where are you going...?" The H/c girl asked, tears forming in her eyes._

_"I knew I'd find you!" Her father's voice hollered as a ball of fire magic landed directly next to her mother's feet._

_"Y/n, I need you to run!" Her mother spoke desperately, urging the young girl towards the nearby forest as she turned back to where the voice came from._

_"Mum? Please..." Y/n let the tears fall from her eyes now as she watched her mother send an attack in response to her father's attack before turning to her again._

_"Please, Y/n. I need you to be safe,"_

_The H/c girl felt conflicted, however, her fear resurfaced as she saw her father getting closer, turning away from her mother and running, hearing aloud grunt from her father as he was knocked back by her mother's magic._

_She soon reached the edge of the forest and looked back against her better judgement, seeing what looked like both her parents kneeling down, both looking bruised and battered and she felt the urge to go back and take her mother with her, however, her previous words still echoed in her head_

_"...I need you to run...I need you to be safe..."_

_With a heavy heart and tears still falling, she turned and ran, weaving in between trees in the forest and occasionally losing her footing after tripping on tree branches, eventually deeming it to be safe for her to stop for a rest. Her breathing was heavy and the tears just would not stop as she thought about what had happened, the realisation of tonight's events dawning upon her as she wore herself out, eventually passing out slumped against a tree trunk._

 

"That's right, I love that look of...anguish on your face," Her father spoke, his voice full of malice "You and your mother are as bad as each other, that's why I got rid of her, only, I won't do the same to you my precious Y/n. No...For you, I'm going to let you live...only, I'm going to cause as much pain as I possibly can..."

Wicked laughter echoed throughout the room and Y/n flinched away, refusing to make eye contact with the man she begrudgingly called father

"What could I possibly do to cause you the most amount of pain...Hmm..." His eyes focussed on the H/c girl's upper arm, grinning wickedly "Fairy Tail huh? The only ones you've trusted in all these years...I bet you think it was a mistake. You think they betrayed you when in fact," He leaned in uncomfortably close so that Y/n could feel his breath on her ear "They had no idea I was behind this. Anyone could've undone those runes with the right knowledge but  they believed that you were the only one able to do it, what fools," 

The H/c girl's eyes widened upon hearing this. She had stupidly believed him earlier. This was his plan all along and she had fallen straight into his trap. The panic must have been evident on her face as her father let out a blood-curdling laugh, gripping the top of her arm and looking at her guild mark in disgust.

"Maybe I should get rid of this, I don't want any marks tainting my precious Y/n. But how should I do it?" His grin stretched impossibly wider "How about we use some magic?" He started to let flames engulf his hand, his grip on Y/n's arm still tight as the H/c girl cried out it pain at the burning sensation.

She struggled as much as she could against the restraints, the pain coursing through her arm and around the rest of her body. Writhing around, she felt her breathing become heavy, the pain becoming too much as the F/c mark began fading, being left with burning blisters covering her skin. Letting out a wail of pain, she could only hope that this would end soon. After all, she had trapped everyone in the guild, thinking they couldn't be trusted and look where that had gotten her.

She closed her eyes tightly, tears escaping her eyes as she tried desperately to picture Freed, hoping that somehow she could send a telepathic message telling him she's sorry only, as much as she hoped, she knew it was impossible. She could feel herself detaching herself from the pain, imagining that she was somewhere completely different right now and hoping, praying that this would all end soon.

Her arm almost felt as if it would drop off at any given second and the pain seemed to go on forever, making her lightheaded, her surroundings becoming fuzzy. Her father released his grip on her arm, letting the limb drop pathetically to the ground, the chains clattering against the floor and alerting her to her father's hands absence. Groggily, she looked towards her arm, seeing the burnt and blistered mess where her guild mark used to be, the sight making her feel nauseous as she finally slipped into unconsciousness, unable to bear the pain any longer.


End file.
